This Is Our World Now
by Anonymous4545
Summary: The disease had struck. Billions are dead. All kids must battle to survive in a world they don't know.
1. chapter 1

This story involves the same disease as the enemy but that's it. None of The Enemy characters will appear in this although the book will be mentioned in this book.

Sorry for any spelling mistakes.

1.

Brendon stared into the distance. Thinking. James was sitting beside him, reading a book. Two weeks ago the disease had struck. Anyone over fourteen got the disease. Half of the people who got it died. They were the lucky people. The other half who got the disease changed. They turned into these zombie like things. Not human anymore. Anyone fourteen or under were safe from the disease but not from the people who got it. They tried to kill you. Tried to eat you. Brendon, James and some other kids were hiding out in Coláiste Pobail Osraí. It was an irish speaking school in Kilkenny city. Most of the kids hiding here had gone to this school. They were in the music room because it was the only room that they were able to lock. A few kids had gone out looking for food as they were running low.

"What time is it?" a kid sitting in front of a piano asked. He had long brown hair and wore an old parka jacket but that was hard to tell in the candle light.

"Callum, you have a watch" Anna said. Anna and Callum had been dating for almost a year now and after spending a week inside the music room they'd grown weary of each others company.

"Its dead" Callum said.

"Its half past eleven" James said.

"How long have Harry, Jack, Fionn and Liam been gone?" Callum asked.

James looked at his watch again.

"About an hour" James said.

"The schools not that big, whats taking them so long?" Callum asked.

"They might have gone to the ormonde college, its right in front of us" James said.

"Ok" Callum said.

They sat there quiet until there was a loud knock on the door.

"That must be them" a kid called Jerome said. He went to open the door.

"Hurry up" someone shouted from outside. He sounded panicked. Jerome unlocked the door and the four kids ran inside.

"We need to get out of here" a kid called Liam said. "Theres more of them now. We dont stand a chance here."

"We cant go now" Brendon said. "Its pitch black outside and they mostly come out at night"

"Even if we did go, where would we go?" Someone called Jessica said.

"Military Barracks" another kid called Terry said.

"Kilkenny castle" Fionn said.

"Sounds good" Liam said.

"What if other kids are there?" Terry said.

"We surrender" Fionn said.

"I think we should go to the military barracks" Harry said. "Its a better idea. Theres guns and stuff there."

"Every other kid is gonna go there" Fionn said.

"Thats why we go there first and beat all the other kids there" Harry said.

"Im with Harry" Callum said as he stood up.

"Same" Anna said.

"It was my idea so i'll go too" Terry said.

"Im going to kilkenny castle" Brendon said.

"Brendon, you cant be serious" Callum said. "Haven't you always wanted an assault rifle? Now you can get one."

James grabbed a piece of paper and a pen from the desk beside him.

"We'll take a vote" James said. "Put up your hand if you want to go to the military barracks." Callum, Anna, Terry, Harry and Jessica put up their hands. James counted the hands and wrote down five. "Anyone who wants to go to Kilkenny castle." Jack, Liam, Fionn, Jerome, Brendon and James put their hand up. "Kilkenny castle it is" James said.

"Were still going to the military base" Harry said.

"Yeah" shouted Terry, Callum, Anna and Jesaica in agreement.

"Fine" James said. "You go to the military base, we'll go to Kilkenny castle."

2.

When Callum woke it was light outside. He tried to sit up but his back was sore from sleeping on the floor. He slowly stood up and put on his parka jacket. Then he noticed something. There were only four other people in the room. Terry stood up and stood beside Callum.

Terry also noticed that people were gone.

"Hmmm..." Terry said, pretending to be stumped.

"There gone" Callum said.

"No shit, Sherlock" Terry said.

"They've taken all our food as well!" Callum said.

"Those bastards" Terry said.

Callum went to the desk. He saw something underneath it.

"Wait" he said. "Theres something." Callum pulled out a case of dutch gold beer and put it on the table.

"Oh yay" Terry said sarcasticly. "We can drink ourselves to death."

Callum ripped open the pack of twenty four beers and threw one at Terry, before taking one out for himself. Terry sat down and put his feet up on the desk and Callum did the same.

"Cheers" Terry said.

"Cheers" Callum said. They both took a long gulp of the beer, which wasn't really that cold.

3.

After Terry and Callum woke everyone up, the kids stole knives out of the home ec room.

"There very blunt" Jessica said, looking at a knife she was holding, which had a nine inch blade.

"They'll do for now" Callum said.

"Lets go" Anna said. "It'll take an hour to get to the military barracks."

"Wait, lads" Terry said as they walked out the door.

"What" Harry said. Terry held up a set of keys and jangled them.

Harry smiled. "Nice".

When they got to the car park, Terry pressed the lock/unlock button. The lights of a silver Nissan Qashqui flashed to indicate that it was unlocked. The kids put there bags, which contained their personal belongings, clothes and the Dutch Gold beer that the other kids had left for them.

"I hope it starts" Terry said hopefully as he climbed into the drivers seat. He turned the key and the car rumbled into life. He put the car in first gear and the he drove up to the gate.

"Which way?" he asked.

"Left" Anna said.

"Things are finally starting to look up" Callum said.

4.

Thirty three minutes ago

"This isnt right" Brendon said as he, Fionn, Jack, James, Jerome and Liam walked out the front gate. Not only was it the first time he'd left the school grounds and into the real world for a week, he also felt bad for Callum and Terry. They'd been best friends for years and Brendon didn't even get to say goodbye. He'd managed to convince Fionn, who seemed to be in charge now, to leave them something. Sadly, the only thing Fionn was willing to give was whatever was heaviest, and that was the beer. The castle was very close, about a five minute walk. Less maybe.

It was eerily silent. No traffic. No people. No life at all. Abandoned cars littered the road, along with rubbish and a dead body or two.

"Why are we walking in the middle of the road?" Jerome asked.

"According to The Enemy series of we walk in the middle of the road the grownups wont be able to grab us from inside buildings and drag us in to be eaten" James said. "Also we"ll be able to see a person or grownups mor easily if we're in the middle of the road."

"Bullshit" Jerome said.

"Didn't Charlie Higson write The Enemy series?" Fionn asked.

"Yeah" James nodded.

"Charlie Higson was arrested on suspicion of genetically modifying the disease" Fionn said.

"When was this?" Jack asked.

"It was on the news about two weeks ago" Fionn said. "After he was arrested he bit one of the officers. In the end he became so mad they had to shoot him"

"Thousands of kids will be helped by his books though" James said. "If I never read the book i'd try go to the country which is full of grownups and i'd be killed."

"Why would the country be full of grownups?" Jerome asked.

"Because most of the adults tried to escape the city and when they did they still got infected so most of them are in the country."

"Bullshit" Jerome said.

"Also" James said, ignoring Jerome. "If I hadn't read the book, I wouldn't have known that if we stay in the middle of the road we're safer from hiding grownups."

"Bullshit" Jerome said.

"Shut your mouth" James said. Jerome was a couple of inches taller than James, stronger and wouldn't back down from a fight.

"Make me, Ginger" Jerome snarled.

"Call me ginger again and i'll kick you in the fucking balls" James shouted.

"I'll break your fucking nose if you don't shut up" Jerome shouted furiously. James swung a punch. He was stronger than he looked and the punch hit Jerome in the nose.

Jerome covered his nose with his hands and screamed put in pain.

"You little asshole" Jerome shouted. He lunged at James but Brendon and Fionn grabbed him and held him back.

"Jerome, control your anger" Brendon said.

"He fucking punched me!" Jerome shouted. "He's broken my nose!"

"Yes, but you cant beat him up" Brendon said. "He's smarter than the rest of us."

"Who put you in charge" Jerome said.

"No one" Brendon said. "But i'm taking charge because people like you cant act your age. Now, as first act of being in charge, being the leader, im gonna give my position to James because he's smartest. All agreed?"

Everyone but Jerome nodded.

"Great" Brendon said.

"Come on" James said. "We'd better keep walking."

Suddenly, there where some loud, heavy footsteps. Two Grownups ran at them. They shoved James, Brendon and Fionn out of the way and bundled Jerome to the ground. Jerome tried to get them of but they were heavy. Two more grownups charged at them. One targeted Jack and the other Liam. Jack was pinned to the ground by one. They smelt horrible. They looked horrible. Jack rapped his hands around the grownups neck and squeezed hard. The grownup started to wriggle around, gasping for breath. After a minute the grownup started to go limp. Jack kicked him of and stomped on the grownups head, killing it. At that time Liam had killed the other grownup. The others were trying to get the two grownups of Jerome. After couple minutes, they managed to kill or knock out the two grownups.

"Shit" Jerome said. The bottom part of his trouser leg had been torn off and there was a nasty bite from where the grownup had bit him.

5.

"I dont think im gonna make it" Jerome said. They'd rapped some cloth around the wound but Jerome was losing blood, fast.

"The castle is only up the road" Liam said. Him and Brendon were holding Jerome up. At first he tried to walk to help them but he was losing blood very very fast. After a minute he'd given up walking because he claimed he was too tired.

"I'm not gonna make it" he said again. His face had turned bone white and he seemed to be shivering.

"Im cold" He said weekly.

"We're almost there" Jack said.

Liam looked back. He saw a trail of blood behind them. Jerome was right. There was a good chance he wasn't gonna make it. Eventually, they made it to the gate of the castle.

"Its locked" Brendon said.

"There must be another way in" Jack said

"There isn't" Brendon said, sounding stressed. "If this gate is locked than the rest will be."

Brendon lowered Jerome onto the ground. He sat down beside him and he put his head in his hands.

"I shouldn't have left my best friends" Brendon said. "We shouldn't have betraid them. Its karma, man. We took all the food and now Jerome is dying and we're stuck out in the open with no way to protect ourselves."

"It was Jerome's idea to take all the food" Fionn said.

"Karma's a bitch" Jerome said weakly.


	2. 2

6.

"I spy with my little eye" Brendon said. "Something beginning with D"

"Death" Jerome said, weakily.

"Dispair" Fionn said.

"Denial" Jack said.

They were all incredibly bored. Fionn, Jack and Liam went around the castle, looking for a way in. After twenty minutes they went back to the others. They'd realised they'd messed up. They couldn't get in the castle because it was locked, they couldn't get back to school because Jerome was badly injured and even if they could lift him they'd most likely get ambushed by more grownups.

"Dental floss" James said.

"Dandeline" Liam said.

"Correct" Brendon said.

"If we didn't take all the food we probably wouldn't be in this shithole of a problem and we wouldn't be sitting here" James said.

"If we hadn't treated the world so badly" Jack said. "We wouldn't be in this shithole of a world."

"And everyone would still be alive" Liam said.

"Yeah" Jack said.

"I miss my old life" Jerome said, quietly and weakily.

"I miss my Xbox" Fionn said.

"I miss doughnuts" Brendon said.

"I'd do anything to get my old life back" Jack said.

"There's nothing you can do" James said.

"This is our world now" Brendon said. "So we'd better make the most of it."

"I would love a machine gun right now" Fionn said.

"And unlimited ammo" Liam said.

"Yeah" Fionn said.

"If we'd gone with Callum, Terry, Harry, Jessica and Anna we'd probably all have machine guns" Brendon said.

"We could go there now" James suggested.

"We can't" Jack said. "Its all the way across town."

"We could walk it in under an hour" James said.

"What about Jerome?" Jack said. "We can't lift him there and we can't leave him here."

"He's dead" Brendon said solomly.

7.

Terry stopped the car outside the military barracks.

"Remember" he said. "There could be other kids here and they wont want to give away their guns so we have to be stealthy, sneaky and silent."

They got out of the car and walked to the entrance and hid behind the main wall. Callum peaked his head around the wall. He gave a thumbs up to the rest of them and they walked around the wall. They ran ten meters and hid behind a Mitsubishi 4x4 painted in army green. Callum ran another five meters to another Mitsubishi 4x4 and the others followed.

"Wait" Harry said. "Does anyone know where the guns are kept?"

"I think there in that small building there" Anna said, pointing at a small, level roofed building about fourty meters away.

"I'll make a run for it" Callum said.

"Wait" Jessica said. She pointed up at the roof of the main building where a kid sat on a lawn chair holding a sniper rifle with a scope. But he seemed more interested in the book he was reading.

"Lets hope he doesn't look" Callum said. "On three we'll run to the door and go inside, ok? Three, two, one, run"

Callum sprinted for the building, followed by Anna, then Terry, then Jessica and lastly Harry.

"Its locked" Callum said after he'd reached the door and pulled on the handle.

"Move" Jessica said. She pulled a hair clip out of her pocket and shoved it in the keyhole. After twenty nervous seconds she got the door open and they hurried in. The room was full of guns. Some were hanging on the walls and others were sitting on a thigh high table or bench going around most of the room. Under the benches were boxes which read types of ammo on the outside. 5.56mm. 0.45mm. 21 gauge. Terry was imidietly drawn to a double barreled shotgun up on the wall, while Jessica spotted a Colt pistol on the wall. Harry and Callum both imidietly grabbed an assault rifle, while Anna picked up a revolver. Terry took a revolver and then he started rummaging through the boxes, looking for the ammo for his guns. Jessica took a Glock machine pistol, Callum took another assault rifle, Harry grabbed a sub-machine gun and Anna took a pump-action shotgun.

"What kind of ammo does a assault rifle use?" Harry asked.

"There's some mags for them over there" Terry said, pointing at a box a meter away.

Jessica, Harry and Anna were having trouble fitting all the ammo they needed in there pockets but Callum and Terry, who were both wearing parka coats, had no problem.

"Here" Terry said, throwing four belts in the middle of the room. "You can attach your guns to that and theres pouches on it for ammo as well."

Terry fitted one on himself and attached his shotgun too it. He also emptied some bullets for his revolver into the pouches.

After five minutes everyone had gotten as much ammo as possible.

"Ready to go?" Terry asked everyone.

Everyone nodded.

"Here" Terry said, throwing Callum a set of keys. "I found them in here there for one of the army jeeps. Our Nissan is almost out of fuel. Drive it to a safe place. I'll follow you in the Nissan. Then we'll take all the bags out of the Nissan and into the jeep."

"Ok" Callum said. "Lets go."

They ran out the door and into the courtyard. Callum unlocked one of the jeeps and him and Anna jumped in. When they started the car, the kid on roof stop reading and grabbed his gun. He aimed and hit the door of the car as it moved but he couldn't bring himself to kill another kid so he purposally aimed at the wall instead of the kids stealing their guns and cars. As Callum turned right he scraped the jeep on another jeep and he almost ran over Harry as he drove out the entrance. Terry, Harry and Jessica jumped into the Nissan and followed the jeep down the drive to the road. As Callum turned left he didn't turn sharp enough and he scraped the jeep on a parked Audi. He took a right into an alleyway and stopped the jeep. Moments later Terry stopped the Nissan behind the jeep. They all grabbed there bags from the Nissan and put them in the jeep.

"Callum, get out of the drivers seat" Terry said.

Callum want to keep driving but he knew it himself that he was a bad driver so he climbed in the back with Anna and Jessica. Terry sat in the drivers seat and he reversed the car out.

"Where do we go now?" Harey asked.

8.

Their plan was to go and secure one of the buildings on high street as they often only had one way in and out. The kids were in a good mood. They had guns, they had a car and they weren't dead but they needed food and water so Terry drove to McDonnagh junction shopping centre. He parked the car in the underground car park and they got out.

"We're gonna get as much food as possible" Terry said. "Bring that food back to the car then we'll go look around and take clothes or batteries or whatever we need. Keep your guns ready and dont be afraid to shoot."

Terry loaded two shells into his shotgun and turned the saftey off. After walking through a set of double doors and up a motionless escalator, they were in the shopping centre. Although very big, there weren't a lot of shops in it. They turned right and walked to the end of the shopping centre were dunnes stores was.

"Everyone take a trolly" Terry said. " And get food with a long date, preferably canned food."

"Does anyone have a torch?" Callum asked. "Its pitch black in here"

Anna and Jessica both pulled out torches.

"Callum and Anna, you go stay at the front of the shop" Terry said. "Me, Harry and Jessica will go to the back of the shop."

Callum took a trolley and Anna shone her torch down one of the isles. it appeared to filled with biscuits and chocolate and baked goods. Anna's face lit up when she saw a few packets of mint oreo's on the shelf.

"I love these so much" she said. She threw all of them in the trolley before pulling out a packet, ripping it open and stuffing oreos in her mouth. No one had had any food since yesterday and they were all very hungry. Callum grabbed a packet of custard creams of the shelf and started eating those but then something grabbed him. He dropped his assault rifle in surprise as the thing pulled him to the ground. It was now on top of him, trying to bite Callum. Callum kicked and punched but the grownup was heavy. Suddenly there was a flash and the loudest bang and the grownup was knocked sideways. There was another bang and the grownup howled in pain. There was another bang and the grownup stayed still. Callum looked up and saw Anna holding out her hand with the torched in the other and Anna's revolver in its holder. Callum grabbed onto Anna's hand and she helped him and without saying a word he pulled Anna in for a hug.

"Thanks" He whispered into her ear. He kissed her on the lips. Anna had almost certainly saved his life.

Harry, Terry and Jessica heard the gunshot but they figured it was nothing since there was only three shots and there was no screeming or shouting. Harry and Jessica lifted food and water into the trolley while Terry pushed the trolley and shone the flashlight. When they turned right into the frozen food section they were quite surprised to see five kids huddled in the corner. Terry instantly recognised one of them.

"Liza?" Terry asked.

"Terry" the girl said. She had long brown hair and light brown eyes. The girl, Liza, jumped up and hugged Terry.

"I missed you" Liza said.

"I missed you too" Terry said.

Jessica also noticed someone.

"Ugh" she said, looking a boy with disgust.

The boy stood up. He was about fourteen and he had short black hair and was well built.

"Jessica, babe" he said.

"Fuck off, Micheal" Jessica said.

"Why?" Micheal said. "What have I done to you?"

"What have you done to me?!" Jessica said angrily. "You pushed me down a flight of stairs into a group of grownups and shouted take her, not me!"

"I panicked" Micheal said unconvincingly.

"You panicked?!" Jessica shouted. "You pushed your own girlfriend down a flight of stairs because you thought it would keep you safe. Thats not panicking. Thats you being a selfish dick."

"Look, Jess, im sorry" Micheal said. "I wasn't thinking."

"Micheal" Jessica said. "You can go stick your apology up your ass. Also, never call me Jess ever again. That was only when we we're dating."

"We're not dating anymore?" Micheal asked, with a hint of sadness in his voice.

"Of course we're not dating!" Jessica shouted. "You tried to kill me."

"Oh" Micheal said, heartbroken.

"Listen, Jessica" Terry said. "You can shout at you ex in the car but right now we need to get food."

"Wait" Jessica said. "He's coming with us?!"

"Yep" Terry said. "He's another kid. He might be useful."

Terry pointed at the three other kids, two girls and a boy.

"You three" he said. "Come with me. We need to get more food."

9.

The only thing Jack could feel was sadness. He sat there, staring ahead, trying not to look at Jerome's corpse. His eye's were red and puffy from crying, like everyone else's. He just wanted to give up. But then something in his head told him not to. To keep going and if he tried he'd turn out ok. He wasn't sure of the voice was someone talking to him from the dead or him going slowly insane but he listened to it anyway.

"Lads, we cant just sit here and wait for death" Jack said. "We need to at least try and survive."

"Nope" Brendon said. "Death is what I need to realise me from this shithole."

"Would Jerome want you to give up and die" Jack said.

Brendon could see the point in this.

"I guess not" He said.

Jack pointed down the road to a bar called Left Bank.

"We could fortify that building there" Jack said. "Theres only one way in and out."

"Yeah" Brendon said, standing up. "Come on, lads. We can do this."

They other kids grumbled but could see the point and they got up and walked to Left Bank. The door had been left open and the boys walked in.

"See" Jack said. "Its perfect."

There were three bodies on the ground floor. Two of the bodies had uniforms on and had sets of keys for all the doors. Jack took one set and gave James the other. Then Jack locked the main door and closed all the shutters so no grownup could see them from the outside.

"We could take up some of the floorboards and board up the windows with them" Jack said. "And look, we even get our own bar and unlimited booze."

Jack leaped over the bar to get everyone a beer but Jack landed on a body.

"Ewww" he said. "Someone help me get rid off the bodies then well work on making this place secure."

10.

After they'd gotten rid of all the bodies they'd found a hammer. They smashed up some of the tables and boarded up the windows, then closed the shutters before boarding up the shutters. The place was really nice. It had a nice homely feel. The bar was beside the door and ran the length of the room. There were leather benches, tables and chairs to the right and up ahead was a wall which his a staircase leading to the second floor. The boys had taken knives out of the kitchen to use as weapons. And they found some food that would last them a couple of days. Right now, they were sitting at a table on the second floor, drinking beer.

"What kind of jobs are we gonna have?" James asked.

"What?" Brendon.

"You know, for example, Jack, Fionn and Liam hunt and Brendon could be the look out and stuff like that" James said.

"Ill hunt and scavenge for food" Liam said.

"Me too" Fionn said.

"I guess i'll do it as well" Jack said.

"I'll be lookout" Brendon said.

"Ok" James said. "I'll be in charge."

He looked at Fionn, Jack and Liam.

"Lads" he said. "We dont have a lot of food. So go take a look at dunnes stores. There might be food there."

"You're making us go out already?!" Fionn complained. "We've only been here for an hour."

"we're better of getting as much food as we can as soon as we can" James said. "Brendon, get up on the roof and make sure its all clear for them to leave."

"Ok" Brendon said. He opened a door revealing a ladder to the roof.

"All clear" He shouted half a minute later.

"There's some bags by the door" James said. "Take them."

"I dont want to go out there" Fionn said.

"We need the food Fionn." James said. He followed them downstairs and he unlocked the main door for them.

"Good luck" he said. "Be careful."

Jack, Fionn and Liam walked out the door, not looking very happy. James shut and locked the door behind them. He walked back up stairs and downed the last of his beer. He took a book from his and started reading it. Finaly, peace and quiet.


	3. 3

11.

"Perfect" Terry said, stopping the car outside a small shop on high street called Euro Giant.

"Why this shop?" Liza asked.

"There's sweets in it" Terry said. "Water, batteries, Cheap toys to keep us occupied, Dental hygiene stuff, other hygiene stuff and I think theres apartments or at least storage lofts and places for the staff to take a break above."

"Cool" Liza said.

Terry, Liza, Callum, who was still a bit shaken up after his near death expirience, Anna, Harry, Jessica, Micheal and the three other kids called Sasha, Lia and Simon got out of the car.. They left the food in the car in case they couldn't get the shop open.

Harry and Terry stood on top of the car, guns in hand, ready if any grownups came. After Twenty seconds Jessica managed to pick the lock on the shop door and it swung open. The shop hadn't been looted and it was still pack to the brim with sweets and all the cheap shit you get in euro shops. The shop was very cramped inside. They imidietly found a set of keys for the shop on the till counter. On the second floor, they found a storage room with more food inside and a break room, contaning two sofas, a TV, a table, a minifridge and a microwave. On the third floor, they found a bedroom and a bathroom and a ladder and hatch, leading the roof. After Jessica locked the door, they sat in the breakroom to talk about what jobs people should get and what they should do.

"I'll go out and scavenge" Harry said. "Bring back food and give the grownups a taste of hot lead." Harry held up his gun and pretended to shoot.

"Alright" Callum said, writing something on a piece paper. "Harry, you are the leader of your group. We'll call that the scavengers. I'll be in that as well. Anyone else want to join?"

"Yeah" Jessica and Anna said.

"Right" Callum said, righting that down.

"I'll join too" Micheal said.

"Ugh" Jessica shuddered. "Dont let him go."

"Sorry Jessica" Callum said, still writing. "We need the man power. Right, lookout?"

"I'll be the lookout" Terry said.

"Alright good" Callum said, writing. He looked at Simon. "Will you be in charge of security?"

Simon nodded.

Callum looked at Liza, Sasha and Lia.

"Will you guys be in security as well?

All three nodded.

"Alright, great" Callum said. "I'll tape that to the wall later. Right, security, safen up the place. You can board up the windows with the shelves downstairs. Lookout, on the roof. You can take up some food or something with you. Scavengers, bring the food in from the car and then we'll figure out were you can go to get suplies and more food."

12.

Sunlight flooded the room as Terry pushed open the hatch to the roof. He pushed a beach chair, his bag and a crate they found in the jeep containing grenades through the hatch before going up himself. He shut the hatch, un-folded his chair and placed it beside an airconditioning thing. He put his bag beside it and put the crate on top of it. He open the crate and inspected one of the grenades. If there was to much grownups he'd throw one. He put it back and closed the crate. Terry opened his bag and took out a bottle of water, a bottle of Pepsi and two big bags of Aero Bubbles. He also took out a small cassette recorder, a packet of AA batteries, a small portable speaker and a cassette. Putting music on your phone cost money so he found an old cassette recorder at home, along with a couple of tapes, and recorded his favourite music on it. Most kids made fun of him or called him poor for listening to his music on tape but they had to pay for theirs. plus, if you plugged a cable into the microphone jack on the tape recorder and the headphone jack on the phone recorded music from youtube, the quality wasn't bad. He put the tape in the tape recorder and pressed play. Every Breath You Take by The Police came on. He prefered older music. 70's, 80's and some 90's songs. Most kids made fun of him for that as well. Well, not all kids. It was mostly these two kids. It didn't bother him at first but then it slowly started to eat away at him. It was constant. Every single day. He was good friends with them when he was younger but now he hated them. If he ever saw them again he'd shoot them.

Terry ripped the top of the packet of Aero Bubbles and sat back in his chair. He popped one in his mouth. They tasted good. He checked his watch. Quarter to one. He'd be up here for another few hours. No worry.

Lia put the last of the food in a bag before Liza ripped the shelf from its placing. She handed it to Simon who duct taped it to the window. Sasha had gone to take a nap. Simon doubted she'd ever help them with anything. She was very lazy. Lia was also a bit lazy back in school but she didn't eat a lot so she looked fit enough and she seemed willing to do work if it helped her and her friends survive. After he finished duct taping it, Liza passed him another piece of the shelf. He held it in place with his foot as he duct taped it. He left a gap of about half a centimeter incase someone had to look through. After almost half and hour they managed to cover all the windows. It wasn't that hard as there wasn't a lot of window space. It was a very small shop. There was a drinks fridge beside the window that was, surprisingly, still working and stocked to the brim with drinks.

"Liza, Lia, what drink do you want?" Simon said loudly.

"Fanta" Liza said.

"Coke" Lia said.

"Catch" Simon said.

He threw the Fanta and Coke at Liza, who caught them neatly. She gave the coke to Lia.

Simon sat back in a spinny chair behind the till counter and put his feet up on it while Lia and Liza sat on the till counter.

"Im parched" Liza said. She twisted of the cap of he Fanta and chugged a good bit of it.

"I haven't had a fizzy drink in weeks" Simon said. "Or sweets and anything nice in general."

"I haven't seen a TV or phone in weeks" Lia said, quietly. She was always quiet.

"I miss my phone" Liza said. "I had all my friends Snapchat on it."

"Someday, i'll be telling my kids about this amazing thing called Snapchat" Simon said. "'A yes son, Snapchat was the best. You could send pictures and talk to people. And it was all on this magical device called a mobile phone.' I can honestly say im not looking forward to that day."

Callum, Anna, Harry Jessica and Micheal sat in the break room around a table. A map of Kilkenny city was spread out on the table.

"Alright" Callum said. "We can go to the dunnes stores here." He pointed at it on the map. "But its most likely to be looted. There's also plenty of other shops no more than a ten minute drive but they'll probably be looted too. So we're better of scavenging from the shops on the street we're on, which is fine because there are cafe's, restraunts and shit like that and the smaller shops tend to have apartments above them so we'll find food in them. The first time we go scavenging will be to the buildings around us. We'll be going tommorow at twelve."

"What if there are grownups?" Anna asked.

"We fight" Callum said. "Any other questions?"

"Why does he have to come with us?" Jessica said, harshly, pointing a finger at Micheal.

"Because we need all the help we can get" Callum said.

"But he's a pussy" Jessica said. "He won't fight. He'll scream and run away."

"Jessica" Callum said. "I know you hate him because he tried to kill you to save himself but we need ev-"

"I didn't try to kill her on purpous" Micheal shouted. "It was an accident."

"What, so you 'accidently' pushed my down a flight of stairs into a bunch of grownups and not try to help" Jessica said.

"It was an accident" Micheal said. "I bet Simon will back me up, he was there. someone get him up here."

Callum got up and walked downstairs. He leaned through the doorway.

"Simon" he said. "Micheal wants you."

Callum and Simon walked into the room.

"Simon" Micheal said. "Did I purposely try to kill Jessica by pushing her down the stairs to save myself."

"Im not gonna lie" Simon said. "He tried to kill her."

"Fuck you" Micheal said angrily.

"Fuck you too" Simon said cheerfully. He stepped out of the room.

Suddenly there was a horribly load bang that left there ears ringing.

"What was that?!" Callum said. He looked out the window to see where it came from and he saw two grownups lying dead in the middle of the road. Both were peppered with little holes.

"I think that was Terry" Harry said.

"He has a good shot" Callum admired.

12.

Terry had been up on the roof all day and he was very board. The sun was starting to set and it was starting to get cooler. He ran out of sweets to eat about an hour ago. Tomorrow he would see if Liza would like to join him up here. It would be more fun with Liza. He first met Liza almost a year ago and they'd been going out since January. Four months. Four amazing months.

Terry was getting ready to go back downstairs when he saw something in the the corner of his eye. A grownup. It stared at him. He could see that it was carrying a small knife. He aimed his shotgun and fired. The grownups head exploded as the brunt of the shot hit him in the head. As he reloaded his shotgun he saw about fifty grownups advancing down the street, about three hundred meters away. Beside the left bank bar.

Terry was speechless. He couldn't move. He was glued to his spot. He just stared as they slowly walked towards building. A few seconds later Terry recovered from his shock and opened the hatch and climbed down the ladder, into the building.

"Grownups" he shouted at the top of his voice. "Fucking grownups." He ran down to the bottom floor where Simon, Lia and Liza were playing a board game.

"Grownups" Terry shouted, sounding panicked.

"How many?" Simon asked, standing up.

"About fifty" Terry said, still panicked. "More, probably."

"Are you serious?!" Simon said.

"Yeah" Terry nodded. "Get a weapon of some sort, I need to go get Callum."

Terry ran up the stairs into the breakroom. Callum, Jessica and Harry were in there talking about a tv show called South Park. Terry loved South Park but he had something more important on his mind.

"Grownups" Terry said quickly. "Tons of them."

"Fuck" Callum said. He looked at Harry. "Go get Anna and anyone else with a weapon. Terry, go back to the lookout and shoot as much as you can. Jessica, come with me. We'll defend the place as much as we can."

Terry ran back up to the roof. He aimed in the middle of the group of grownups and fired. It was unreal. There were so many of them. He'd played games on his Xbox based on the zombie apocalipse but this was to real. There was a massive sense of life or death. He was shaking.

He turned his tape recorder back on. Rockin All Over the World by Satus Quo came on. He sang along to it as he continued shooting.

13.

Harry came back downstairs. Anna and Micheal had come with him to help. When he had asked Sasha to help them she'd told him to go fuck himself. Simon, Lia and Liza had no weapons so Liza went up to the roof to Terry while Simon and Lia went into the break room and locked the door behind them. Harry now stood with Callum, who had his assault rifle in his hand, Micheal who had a simple switchblade, Anna, with her pump action shotgun and Jessica, with her Glock machine pistol in hand. They could all hear the sound of shots from Terry up on the roof. Callum undid the lock on the door.

"Wait" Micheal said. "Whats the plan?"

"Shoot and kill" Callum said.

"What about me" Micheal said. "I dont have a gun."

"Stab and kill" Callum said. He opened the door and they ran outside. The grownups were twenty meters away. Callum aimed his gun and pulled the trigger but nothing happened. He flicked a switch and pulled the trigger. A spray of bullets shot out of the gun. He managed to take out five grownups before his magazine ran out of ammo. He undid the old one and shoved in the new magazine. He switched the gun to the other setting, semi automatic, to conserve ammo. He fired again and took down another grownup. Then something shoved him to the ground, winding him. The thing turned him over. He could see that it was another grownup. It bit his arm but before its teeth pierce the skin there was a loud bang and blood started pouring out of its head. Harry pushed the dead grownup of him and gave him a hand up. Harry had saved his life, like Anna had done earlier. Grownups were coming from behind them now. If they didnt kill them soon they'd be surounded. The first group of grownups were less than five meters away and the second group were already within touching distance.

"Eat lead, cunts!" Harry shouted as he held down the trigger, sending a spray of bullets into four grownups.

He turned the gun backwards in his hands and whacking another grownup with the butt of it.

Jessica and Anna ran past Harry to an abandoned VW Passat at the side of the road. They both jumped onto the roof of it and fired there guns into the mass of grownups. Jessica was a natrual, almost hitting every single grownup she fired at in the head. Anna had clipped her shotgun back on her belt, as the kick back on it was too strong and it was very heavy. She'd taken her revolver out and was making decent progress, taking about three shots to kill a grownup. Micheal was mostly ducking and weaving, avoiding as much grownups he could, only fighting if nesicery. He'd killed two grownups so far. A grownup lunged at him. He stabbed it but he couldn't get his knife back out so he had no choice but to leave it. After dodging another grownup, he opened the door to the Mitsubishi jeep they'd come in and locked the door behind him. Micheal sat there for a minute, catching his breath. Then he searched the car for a weapon, preferably a gun. After looking through the glove compartment and the centre console all he found was a clip for a pistol. He checked under the seat and found a small black case. He opened it and found a black pistol and a clip inside. He loaded the clip in and cocked it. The windows were manual so he rolled them down and fired at the grownups outside.

"Fire in the hole" someone shouted. A grenade sailed through the air to the edge of the first group of grownups. Then there was the loudest bang and a dozen grownups were blown into the air while a dozen more got knocked down by the blast.

14.

"What the fuck was that?!" Harry shouted.

"Terry must have thrown a grenade" Jessica shouted. There ears were ringing from the blast, so they had to shout to hear each other.

Someone ran out of the shop towards them. It was Simon, holding Terry's revolver.

"Terry says get inside" He said, before shooting a grownup that got to close. "He has more grenades."

They ran to door, dodging grownups as they went. When they got inside, Lia slammed the door behind them and turned the key and slid the bolt. A couple of seconds later there was another loud explosion. Then another. Then another.

"How much grenades does Terry have?" Callum asked.

"I dont know" Jessica said. "He could have a billion for all we know."

There was another explosion, then silence.

"I think there all dead" Harry said.

Terry came at that moment, shotgun in hand.

"Theres other kids out there" he said.

"Who?" Callum asked.

"How should i know?!" Terry said.

"Should we let them in" Anna asked.

"I guess" Callum said.

"What if they attack us?" Micheal asked. He was nervously twisting the pistol he found in his hand. He had about five bullets left in it.

"They know we have explosives and stuff" Terry said. "They've definetly heard the grenades go off."

"We might as well go out and greet them" Callum said.

He unlocked the door and stepped outside. Harry, Anna and Jessica followed. The air was mild and crisp and there was a slight breeze, which gave Callum goosebumbs on his arms and a small chill down his back. He could see the kids now. About five of them. They were walking towards them, slowly. One of the kids there raised his hands, to show that he wasn't carrying any weapons, although it was hard to see that as it was past sundown.

"We're not looking for trouble" one of the kids said. "We just want to talk."

Callum recognized the voice. He knew who the kids were.

"Brendon?" He asked.

15.

Everyone was inside the shop now. Even though Callum and the rest of them were pissed at Brendon, James, Jack, Fionn and Liam for taking all the food they'd forgiven them. They all sat in the break room, talking about what to do next.

They decided to try getting in the castle again. If they couldn't find a way in, Terry would ram the gate with the jeep.

It was hard sleeping that night, like every night, but eventully, darkness turned into light and they were all awake, ready to go. The dead bodies from the fight last night lay on the ground. It was a sickening sight.

They couldn't all fit in the jeep so they loaded it with their suplies and Terry drove it at a slow 5 mp/h while everyone else walked beside it. The castle was only down the road so it didnt really matter. Harry stood on the roof of the Mitsubishi, machine gun in hand, watching for any grownups or other kids. After five minutes they made it to the main gate of the castle. Jessica tried to pick the lock on the gate but after a minute she gave up. So Terry rammed the jeep through it. Brendon looked around. The castle was big. There were two massive fields along with a small woods. It didn't look like anyone was here.

They walked in through the main double doors.

"There could be grownups in here" James said. "Or other kids so we'd better split up and search the place."

He pointed at Micheal.

"You, Liza, Sasha, Jessica and Liam stay on the bottom floor. Me, Callum, Harry, Simon and Lia will go to the second floor and Terry, Brendon, Anna, Fionn and Jack will go to the top floor."

"Why do I have to be with him?" Jessica said to James, pointing at micheal.

"Because i said so" Jame replied.

"And who put you in charge?" Jessica said sternly.

"He's not in charge, im in charge" Callum siad.

"No your not" James said. "Who siad you were leader."

"My group is bigger that means im in charge of more of the group so i might as well be in charge of everyone." Callum said.

"In all fairness now," Brendon said. "James is much more leader matirial."

"Brendon, we let you in, we saved your ass and your saying James is better then me?!" Callum said.

"You didn't "save our ass", we had a perfectly nice set up in the left bank to go back to." Brendon said.

"For fuck sake, guys, does it really matter?!" Anna said. "We can argue about this once we know were safe."

"She's right" Callum said. "C'mon, lets go."


	4. 4

16.

Brendon, Terry, Fionn, Jack and Anna walked down the top floor hallway. As they walked they'd check into every room making sure there was nothing there. Brendon was very interested in Anna's shotgun.

"Where'd you get it?" Brendon asked.

"Where do you think?" Anna said. "The military base"

"Who's the shotgun made by?" Brendon asked.

Anna uncliped it from her belt and gave it to brendon.

"It probably says it somewhere there"

"Remington" Brendon said. "There good. What ammo does it take?"

Anna took out a shotgun shell from her pocket and passed it to brendon.

"12 gauge" He said. "What-"

suddenly there was an incredibly loud bang and two grownups fell down, dead.

Terry clipped his shotgun back on his belt.

They started to walk again.

"So, Fionn, Why didn't you come with us to the military base?" Terry asked. "It worked out well for us."

"We thought there'd be other people there" Fionn said.

"There were other people there" Terry said.

"Did they give you the guns?" Fionn asked.

"No" Terry said. "we stole them. Someone tried to shoot at us but he gave up after two shots."

"Do you think you could help me go over there and get a gun?" Fionn asked.

"Probably" Terry said. "There were loads of guns there when we left and I think there's still ammo. But since we stole there guns they might be keeping a closer watch, and more willing to shoot."

"They wouldn't shoot another kid." Jack said, butting in. He'd been walking behind them, not talking, thinking to himself.

"Kids act differently under a lot of stress." Terry said. "Some might even shoot us for the fun of it."

"Does it hurt your shoulder when you shoot your gun?" Fionn asked Terry but when he looked over at Terry he was gone. Fionn saw him lying on the ground, unconsiuse or dead, he couldn't tell. Then Jack fell over as well, also unconsiuse or dead.

He turned around and saw four kids but before he could do anything they knocked him out as well.

Micheal, Liza, Sasha, Jessica and Liam were in the ground floor cafe. None of them had had any breakfast and they were hungry. There were chocolate bars that were still in date and and a couple of other stuff. Micheal, Jessica and Liam were at one table. Liam was fixing Jessica's Colt pistol after it had jammed while shooting some grownups. Liam was really good with tecnology and guns and stuff like that. He once made an EMP and brought it into school one day but he purpously made it weak so it wouldn't destroy anyones phone but when he put it beside a phone the screen would go fuzzy and dark. Sasha and Liza sat at another table talking about life before the disease as Sasha stuffed her face with food. It was very cold in the room and dark as there were only two windows so Liam had his torch on.

Suddenly over a dozen grownups burst through the door. Sasha attempted to run away but three grownups pinned her to the ground and bit chunks out of her as she screemed for help. Liza had no weapons so she grabbed a chair and hit any grownups that got too close. Micheal aimed his shots carefully as he only had a few mote shots in his pistol.

Jessica was looking for a clip for her Glock in her bag. She had very little ammo for her glock so she hadn't used it yet. Liam was stabbing some with his knife but they were starting to surround him. Eventully she found a clip, loaded it in the gun and shot the grownups surrounding her before shooting the ones surrounding Liam. The noise was defening in the tiny room. She dealt with the three that Liza was fighting before killing the three on Sasha. There was a pool of blood around Sasha. Her clothes were torn, there were chunks of flesh missing from her, one of her feet was missing and she wasn't breathing. Dead. She was about to cry. But then someone whacked her around the head and Jessica was knocked out

"Why the fuck did you do that?!" Liam shouted, looking at the four kids who had entered the room. They started to advance towards him. Liam stabbed one in the chest but couldn't pull his knife out in time and was knocked out by the kids. Micheal aimed his gun at them as they got closer but he couldn't shoot another child. He whack one around the head with his pistol but the kid hit him with his bat and Micheal fell unconsious. Two others walked towards Liza

"What do you want from me?" Liza asked. she was backed up against a wall, he chair still in hand. "Dont kill me."

One of the kids walked to her and whacked her around the head with his clubs.

James, Callum, Simon, Lia and Harry walked through the second floor coridor, checking inside every door they came across. Callum was regretting talking the two assault rifles. They were very heavy and the clips for them were to big and stuck awkwardly out of his pockets. Harry's guns weighed roughly the same but he was stronger than Callum and pretty much everyone else. They'd heard a shot from upstairs and lots from downstairs but they decided not investigate as they still hadn't finished search their floor. Some Rooms on this floor were full of personal belongings and clothes and other stuff.

"There are definetly people here" Harry said.

"You don't say" James said sarcasticly.

"Maybe they all died" Callum said. "Killed by the grownups. They would have heard those shots from upstairs and downstairs and look around to see if other kids were here."

"Maybe there all hiding from us and will attack when we least suspect it." Lia said, quietly.

"Why would they want to attack us" Simon said.

"Because we rammed through the main gate in a jeep and started shooting anything that moves." Lia replied.

Simon thought about that for a moment. "Good point."

"If they are gonna attack then we'd better be ready for it" James said. "Harry, Callum, keep your guns ready.

"We're living in a world where we have to kill adults if we dont want to get eaten by them," Callum said. "And you think I don't have my gun read?!"

"Im just saying" James said.

"I know" Callum said.

Suddenly Callum was knocked down to the floor. Harry spun around to face the attackers but tripped on a piece of uneven stone. He accidently pulled the trigger and bullets smashed into the roof.

The attackers knocked out James before knocking Harry out before he got back up. Lia and Simon started running.

"I was right" Lia said as they ran.

They turned a corner but two more kids were there.

"Shit!" Simon said.

They turned around and ran into the other kids. Simon threw a punch which hit one of the kids noses. The other kid knocked him out before he could throw another punch. They started to advance on Lia. She could see that the kid Simon punched had a bloody and broken nose.

Broken nose kid whacked Lia with his club, knocking her unconsious.

17.

Simons eyes opened. He was lying on a floor somewhere. He had an awful pain in his head. He felt his head and found a horrible lump where he'd been hit by the bastards at Kilkenny castle.

After a couple of minutes he sat up. He looked through a window. It was slightly bright outside and the sky was a kinda orange and yellow colour. It must've be dawn. He stood up. They were in a Campervan or something. Lia was lying on a bench and James, Harry and Callum were on the floor. He noticed that Callum and Harry didnt have their guns. The other kids must've taken them.

"Where are we?" Lia asked. She had just woken up.

"I dont know" Simon said. "Kilkenny, hopefully."

"What time is it?" Lia asked.

Simon looked at his watch. "Half past five."

Lia nodded and lied back down on the bench.

Eventully everyone woke up.

"Where the fuck are we?" Harry said. he was the last to wake up.

"I dont know" Simon said. "We could be anywhere."

"Where's my gun?!" Harry said, alarmed. He felt inside his pockets and inside pouches on his belt.

"They've taken my ammo as well!" Harry said. He searched through his bag. "They've taken it all."

"My gun is gone too" Callum said. He didn't sound as worried.

"Its your own fault" James said.

"How is it my fault?" Callum said.

"You were all high and mighty, saying that you were ready for anything then you got hit seconds after." James said.

"He snuck up behind me." Callum said, loudly. "I dont have eyes in the back of my fucking head."

"You should've heard him." James said.

"You didnt hear him either!" Callum shouted. "Why should I take the blame? Your in charge. You take the blame."

There was a loud bang on the side of the campervan. Then another. Then another. Then another.

"Grownups" James said.

"No shit, Sherlock" Callum said, harshly.

18.

Anna woke with a jolt. She had a horrible pain in her head. She was sitting upright in a car. There was a car to the left and another to right. Fionn was in the drivers seat, hunched over the steering wheel, asleep or unconsious. In the back Terry, Brendon and Jack were hunched over, unconciuos.

Anna sat there, thinking to herself. What were they gonna do? This disease was awful. Would the grownups ever be killed off? Would they be fighting them forever? Would they slowly be picked off one by one? If they lived up to 15 would they get the disease? Would any of them ever have the chance for a future? She knew the answer to last one. A lot of kids would die, if not all of them. The future didnt look bright for anyone. What was the point of fighting if they were all gonna die anyway. Before she could think anymore there was a cough beside her. Fionn was starting to wake up. He looked around, confused.

"Where the fuck are we and what the fuck happened?" he said.

"If i knew, i'd tell you." Anna said. After another fifteen minutes everyone was awake.

"Anna, where'd your guns go?" Brendon asked.

Anna looked down where her guns would be.

"Oh shit" she said. "The kids from Kilkenny castle must've taken them."

"They've taken all my ammo and my revolver but i still have my shotgun" Terry said. "I have two shots in it, so i'd better make them count."

"Im not going out there with no weapons" Anna said.

"We dont have to" Jack said. "We could try hotwire the car."

"Its not as easy as it looks in the movies" Terry said.

"We can still try." Jack said.

"Ill give it a shot." Terry said. "Fionn, get in the back."

Terry and Fionn quickly changed seats.

Terry pulled open a hatch under the steering collum. Terry fumbled about with the wires for about five minutes.

"I dont think i can hotwire it" Terry said.

"Use these" Anna said. She handed him a set of car keys.

"Where did you find these!?" Terry asked.

"In the glove box" Anna said.

Terry shoved the keys in the ignition. He turned the key. The engine in the car spluttered but didn't start. He turned the key again. The engine wheezed into life. He reversed it out of the parking space and drove forward. They were in a multistory car park so Terry drove down a few levels and rammed through the main gate and onto the open road.

"Where should we go now?" Brendon asked.

"We're gonna go back to the shop first" Terry said. "I have a pounding headache and i wanna sleep. Then we'll go back to Kilkenny castle to get our guns and shit back."

After a couple of minutes they were back at the shop. Terry got out and inspected the car. It was a dark blue BMW 528i Estate. It was pretty old. According to the licence plate it was from 1997.

Jack tried to open the door of the shop. When they'd left they left the doors unlocked and the keys inside. He pulled on the door continuesly but to no avail. There must have been someone inside. He banged on the door. No answer. He banged again. No answer. He banged again.

"Open up" He yelled. "Were just kids."

No answer.

"Just open the fuckin' door" Jack yelled.

"Would you shut up" Fionn said. "You've attracted something not good"

He pointed down the street. Several grownups made there way down the street towards them.

Jack banged on the door again, more rapidly. "For fucks sake, open the door. There grownups out there and we have no weapons. Please, just let us in."

A window opened above him. A girl of about 13 with ginger hair leaned out of it.

"Go away" She said.

"Let us in, please" Jack said. Behind him, Terry had already started shoving grownups back with the butt of his shotgun.

"im not letting you in" She said. "Its lucky me and my friends found it all secured with keys for it and every-."

"We secured it" Anna shouted. She had climbed on top of the car along with everyone else to get away from the clawing hands of the grownups. "We were here before you!"

"You were not." The girl shouted.

"We were" Anna said. "The room your in has a dark grey sofa with a coffee stain on the right cushion, two brown leather armchairs, a chipped wooden coffee table and a mini-fridge."

The girl looked back in the room.

"That doesnt prove anything." She shouted. The girl was then shoved out of the way and a familiar face came to the window.

"Liam!" Jack shouted. "Help us."

Liam left the window and came through the front door 20 seconds later with Jessica and Micheal beside them. They also had there weapons taken from them and they were using whatever they could: A hurl, a small knife and a long broom with the head snapped of. Terry was standing the hood of the car, beating a grownup to death with his shotgun, while Jessica, Liam and Micheal started attacking the grownups. Jessica was making quick work of some of the grownups with her broken broom. She was a natural born fighter and would prove useful in the coming months and years. Micheal wasn't the best at fighting. He had a five inch blade on his knife so he aimed for the necks of the grownups. His aim wasn't perfect but these grownups had been badly affected by the disease and probably pretty old so they were a bit easier to take out but they shouldn't be under estimated, they can still kill. Suddenly a younger, male grownup slammed him into the side of the car. The grownup was much stronger and it pinned him by his arms so he couldn't stab. Micheal kneed it in the crotch. it howled in pain and loosened its grip on Micheals arms just enough for him to break his right arm free and stab the grownup in the side of the neck. Blood spurted out of it as it fell to the ground, dead. Liam was knocking grownups down with a hurl. He was much stronger than everyone else and was an amazing fighter. Terry wasn't as strong but he could still put up a fight. A grownup grabbed his leg and pulled him off the car. He quickly shot it in the face before getting back up. Eventually the grownups were dead and the kids got down from the car.

"Nice set of wheels" Liam told Terry, looking at the car.

"Thanks" Terry said. "Its a BMW 528i. 2.8L straight-six. Very powerful."

"Sweet" Liam said.

They walked inside and upstairs into the breakroom. Liza was sitting up there along with four other kids. Terry sat down beside Liza and they started talking and Jack, Fionn, Anna and Brendon stayed standing up, staring at the four other kids.

"Guys, this is Ben, Saoirse, Ryan and Aoife." Liam said. Ben was on the floor, sitting against the wall. He had short sandy brown hair, was dressed in a full Adidas tracksuit and was smocking a cigarette.

Saoirse was sitting on the sofa. She had long blonde hair, she was wearing dark blue jeans and a pink top. She was reading a magazine she had found in the shop and wasn't even bothered to look at the new kids.

Ryan sat on the sofa beside Saoirse. He had black hair. He had an air of a lot of self confidence. He smiled and nodded at Jack. Jack nodded back.

Aoife was sitting on the floor, beside the window. She had ginger hair and was slightly overweight. She was the one who wouldn't let them in less then ten minutes ago.

Liam sat down on a lawn chair in front of the table and continued to work on the colt pistol. The Kilkenny castle kids probably didn't take it because most of it was already dismantled. Micheal sat down on the floor and Jessica had gone of somewhere else. A couple minutes later Jessica came down and tossed three shotgun shells at Terry.

"Here" She said. "I found these on the roof earlier."

"Cool" Terry said. "Thanks."

He put two in his pocket and loaded the last one in his shotgun.

The atmosphere in the breakroom was boring and depressing. Nobody was talking. The highlight was when Liam managed to fix Jessica's pistol.

"Cheers" Jessica said, holding the working gun in her hand, inspecting it.

Once again, the room was silent, until Ryan broke the silence.

"How did you guys get here?" He said, looking at Jack.

"Some kids from Kilkenny castle knocked us out, took our stuff and left us in a random car." Jack said.

"They did that to us too" Ryan said. "They took my rifle, Saoirse's Machete and Ben's weed. I'd love to get back at those bastards.

"We can go and raid the place." Brendon said. "They might have our guns but there not gonna kill us."

"Dont be so sure of yourself." Terry said. "You dont know what there capable of."

"There not capable of shit" Brendon said. "We'll get our stuff back in no time."

"I wish i had your confidence" Ryan said.

"Lucky for me I do." Terry said, Standing up. "Me and Brendon are taking those retards down, if anyone wants to come they can.

He looked at Brendon. "Lets go."

They walked out the door. Jessica and Liam quickly followed. Fionn shrugged and followed as well. Ben put out his cigerette and stood up.

"Im getting my fuckin' weed back" He said. "I paid top dollar for that shit."

He stormed out in pursuit of the others.

Aoife stood up and took Liams seat, which was now empty. She wasnt going anywhere. Jack walked out. He'd rather do something stupid than not doing anything at all. Anna wanted her revolver back so she got up left as well. Liza followed her. Micheal followed them as he didn't want to stay there. Ryan, amazed by the amount of people going, got up and left as well. Saoirse didn't give two shits and continued reading.

Terry got in the car and started it. The engine purred into life.

"We've got a problem Terry." Brendon said.

"What?" Terry asked.

"There's eleven of us." Brendon pointed out. "This car only seats five.

"Four can go in the back and the rest in the boot." He said.

"Whatever you say, Terry" Brendon said.

19.

The grownups continued to bang on the side of the caravan, making a stupid attempt to get in.

"This is you fault" James said. "If you had kept your voice down they wouldn't me here."

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Callum said, loudly. "Why do you have to blame for everything and why do you have to always piss me off."

"You just piss yourself off" James said. "I do nothing."

"You do nothing?!?!" Callum shouted. "You do everything. If you did nothing, you wouldn't piss me off."

"Are you still mad at what James did with Anna?" Lia asked, quietly

"Why would you bring that up now?!" Callum asked.

"You and James used to be good friends." Lia said. "But after James shifted Anna at Noah's house party you've been constantly arguing."

"It was just one shift" James said. "And we were both drunk."

"She was drunk" Callum said. " You were not. You used her."

"I've already said sorry." James said.

"Did you tell Anna that you were sorry?" Callum said. "She's pretty pissed at you."

"And if you didnt open your fat gob she wouldn't know and wouldn't be pissed at me." James said.

"Your the one who rushed around telling everyone." Callum replied. "She was gonna find out eventully. I didn't even tell her anyway. I didn't know."

"I like this drama" Simon said. "It reminds me of home." Simons parents had always argued with each other when they were alive.

A grownups hand smashed through the drivers window of the caravan. It started breaking more parts of the glass, slowly but steadily.

"Well, we're fucked." Harry said.

"There must be some sort of weapons in here" Simon said as he started rumaging through a cupboard.

"Here." Simon tossed a knife onto the floor. It had a nine inch blade. Harry picked it up and quickly realised that he couldn't kill any of them from inside the caravan. He opened the door and ran out.

"Harry, what the fuck are you doing?!" James shouted in alarm.

Harry stabbed the one closest to the caravan through the chest and pushed it away before stabbing another. One tried to push him over. Harry stumbled into another grownup which immediately tried to bite him. He stabbed it but was then tackled by another. It pinned his arms down and tried to bite his neck. Harry kneed it in the crotch. The grownup howled in pain and loosened its grip enough for Harry to pull out his knife hand. He stabbed it in the neck but as blood spurted out another grownup came and bit him in the leg. As he yelled out in pain the grownup was knocked off by Callum who had stormed out with a rolling pin a second earlier. He started clobbering any grownups nearby as Harry ran into the caravan. As soon as he got in Simon took the knife of him and ran out to help Callum.

Harry sat down and rolled up his trouser leg. There was a nasty bite on his right leg. He was bleeding a little bit but wasn't as bad as when Jerome was bit. He was told that the grownup had torn a chunk out of Jerome. This was only a bite. Although bites can still kill. His brother had been bitten. His brother was over the age of fourteen so he would've gotten the disease anyway. Harry took out a water bottle and a top from his bag. He poured water over the bite before wrapping his top around it like a make shift bandage.

Callum and Simon stormed back into the caravan. Simon slammed the door behind him.

"There all dead" Callum said. "We should leave now. Its not that safe now."

"No shit" James said.

Callum looked at him. "Im not getting in a fight with you again."

They decided to go back to kilkenny castle again and try to get in and get there guns back. It was a stupid idea but they had nothing better to do. If they did get in the kids from the castle might have antibiotics and other medicine to help Harry. They were only a twenty minute walk away.

"How you feelin' Harry?" Callum asked as they rounded the corner. They could see Kilkenny castle up ahead.

"Not bad" Harry replied. "It hurts a bit but its not as bad as I thought it would be."

Soon they were at the gates of the castle. The Jeep was still where Terry had parked it but the doors where open and some of the windows smash.

"Looks like they fixed the gate." Callum said, tapping it with his rolling pin.

Suddenly there was a gunshot and a bullet wizzed past them.

"Go away." Someone shouted from the top of the castle. The castle was about four stories tall.

"Come down here." Callum shouted.

The kid fired another warning shot. "Go away."

"No" Callum shouted. "You stole our guns and we want them back." He pointed at the jeep in the courtyard. "Thats our jeep in there."

"Whats going on" Another kid said, walking to the gate. He had short brown hair and a broken nose. He was carrying an M16. Callum recognised it.

"That was my gun" Callum said. "Give it back."

"Nope" The kid said. He pointed his gun at the other kids. "Now, go away before I shoot you."

Callum was gonna reply but before he could a blue BMW pulled up behind him. It was crammed full of kids and he recognized who was at the wheel.

20.

The boot of the car opened and Micheal, Fionn, Jack and two other kids piled out, while Liza and Anna stepped out through the doors.

Terry got out of the car.

"Whats going on." He asked Callum.

"He wont let us in" Callum said. "And they wont give ur stuff back either."

"Ok" Terry said. He got back in the car, along with Brendon, Liam and Jessica, who hadn't gotten out of the car in the first place. "Ill be back in a second."

He drove the car off into the distance. Callum then heard the sound of the gate at the far end smashing open and the sound of the BMW's engine roaring as it picked up speed inside the castle grounds. The kid on the other side of the gate heard too and pointed his gun at the speeding car. Terry slammed on the brakes and the car screeched to halt. The kid kept the gun pointed at Terry as he got out. Terry didn't really have a plan and wasn't sure what to do.

"Listen." He said, calmly. "Im not gonna shoot you and your not gonna shoot me." To emphasize his point he unclipped his shotgun from his belt and threw it on the grass field beside him. The boy kept his gun pointed at him. "We just wanna talk, ok? Who's in charge?"

"Charlie." The kid said.

"Can you take us too him." Terry asked.

"I guess" The kid said. "C'mon."

"Not just me." Terry said. He pointed out to the other kids at the other side of the gate. "Them too."

"Fine." The kid said. He walked to the gate and unlocked it. Everyone piled in and he locked it again. Terry picked up his shotgun from the grass and put it back on his belt. It was too precius to leave outside. He walked back to the kid.

"Im Aaron" The kid said, lowering his gun.

"Terry" Terry said.

"Charlie wont be happy that you smashed another gate." Aaron said.

"Well you guys stole our shit and left us for dead." Terry said. "We're not even even yet."

Aaron shrugged and led them inside into a massive room full chair, sofas, tables, a big fireplace and a grand piano.

"I dont remember there being this much shit in here." Liza told Terry.

"We raided houses from Larchfield and brought lots of furniture back along with food and batteries and other stuff." Aaron said, matter of factly.

"Thats my uncles sofa" Ben said, pointing at a grey dirty sofa five meters away. He walked up to it and used his pocket knife to slash open the side of it, which had obviously been stitched up before. He reached his hand in and pulled out several small plastic bags filled with cocaine.

"Yup, Its all still in there." Ben said, as shoved his hand back in, searching for more.

"Hmm." Ryan shrugged. "So thats where he gets it from." Ben had been a notorious junkie back in school.

"Anyway" Aaron said. "Which one of you is in charge?"

"Those two keep fighting about it." Simon said, pointing at James and Callum.

"Alright" Aaron said. He looked at James. "Your in charge now, Ginger. Come with me."

"Wait," Callum said. "Do you have a nurse or health clinic or any shit like that here."

"Yeah" Aaron said. "A girl called Linda works upstairs on the second floor. Shes alright treating someone who was stabbed by one of you."

"That was self defence." Liam said. "What was I supposed to do. Let him hit me."

"Anyway," Aaron said. "What do you need her for."

"Someones been bitten." Callum said.

"Who's been bitten?" Brendon asked.

"Bitten?!" Aaron blurted

"Yeah" Callum said.

"By an adult?!"

"Yeah"

"Fuck. We lost two people from bites, already.

"Who was bitten?" Brendon asked again.

"Harry" Callum said.

"Shit" Brendon replied.

"Ginger, come with me." Aaron said. " And whoever Harry is, come with me, as well. we'll take care of you."

Harry, Aaron and James walked off down the hallway.

"Aha," Ben exclaimed as he pulled a big bag from the sofa. "Who fancies a joint?"


	5. 5

21.

James, Harry and Aaron walked down the second floor hallway.

"Just before you go in," Aaron told James. "Charlie is really into war and stuff like that."

"So hes a bit like Jordan from The Enemy series." James said.

Aaron nodded. " Yeah. Just keep that in mind. Also knock before you go in."

Aaron stopped outside a door near the end of the hallway.

"He's in there. Good luck."

Aaron walked off with Harry in tow down the hallway, then up some stairs.

James took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

"Enter" Charlie said from the other side of the door. James stepped in and looked at Charlie. He was sitting behind a desk writing something down in a log book of some sort. His office was mostly bare. There was a desk, three chairs, two in front of the desk, one beside a wall and a filing cabinet. James also noticed a framed world war two era rifle behind him. He wondered if it still worked.

"Who are you?" Charlie asked. He had short black hair and was wearing a trench coat.

"Im James," He said. "I came here with my group."

"Are you in charge of them?" Charlie asked in a demanding tone.

"Yeah" James said.

"Alright, great." Charlie said. "Sit down, General." He closed the book he was writing and leant back in his leather chair.

"So, what are you here for?" Charlie asked. "A favor? A request?"

"Its a bit more then that, Charlie." James said, shuffling around in his seat. "I would-"

"Id appreciate it if you referred to me as General." Charlie interrupted.

"What about sir?" James asked. James figured that Charlie would think he was of "Higher rank" than James so being called sir might help.

Charlie thought about. "Yeah," He nodded. "I like that. So, General, what have you come here for?"

"Well, sir," James said, putting emphasize on the sir. "I was wondering if you'd consider letting me and my group live here."

Charlie thought for a few seconds. "Im ok with that but your group is gonna have to do work, as well. Chefs, cleaners, look outs, security, hunters, farmers, scavengers and anything else."

"Grand" James nodded.

"What kind of weapons does your group have?" Charlie asked.

"Well," James said. "The thing is, we don't really have any because your group stole them off us yesterday when we tried to get in."

"So your the people who drove threw are gate with a jeep." Charlie said, accusingly.

"It wasn't my idea" James said.

"Hmm" Charlie said. "What kind of weapons were they?"

"Three assault rifles," James said. "With ammo, a sub machine gun with ammo, a pump action shotgun with ammo, ammo for a double barreled shotgun, two revolvers with ammo and a glock machine pistol with ammo. I was also told some people who resently joined us lost a machete, a rifle and some ... um... weed here a few days ago. Also you took all our personal belongings. They were in the jeep."

"I see" Charlie said. "I was never told of any guns being confiscated off you."

"What?" James said.

"We take stuff from anyone who brakes in." Charlie said. "If they have the guts to come back than they get everything back."

"Why?" James asked.

Charlie thought for a few second. "I dont know." he said slowly. "Dont worry, General, Ill get your stuff back. In the meantime ill show your group to their rooms."

Charlie stood up. "Lets go."

They walked down the hallway. Even though it was mid April the castle was cold. It was cloudy today and it wasn't very warm.

"I gotta say, General, I like you." Charlie said. "Your not annoying like the other kids that have come here."

"Thanks, sir" James said.

"How long have you know your group?" Charlie asked.

"Some since primary school, some since secondary, two I dont even know the names of." James said.

As they walked down a set of metal stairs they started to here music.

"I wonder what that is?" Charlie said.

When they got to the room they notice all the kids crowded around the piano. Terry was playing it and Brendon was singing Dont Stop Me Now by Queen. Brendon had been the best singer out of the whole year, maybe even the school and Terry had been the best at piano. When the song ended Charlie walked over and leant on the piano near Terry.

"I used to love that song" Charlie said.

"Who are you?" Brendon asked.

"Im Charlie." He said. "I run the place. Listen, im sorry about stealing all your stuff and leaving you in random places but you cant really trust other kids. You'll all get you stuff back by tomorrow but for now i'll show you to you new rooms."

"Listen, sir" James said. "We also have another kid whos in you're medical bay from a bite."

"From a grownup?!" Charlie asked.

"Yeah" James said.

"Nasty" Charlie said. "Anyway, i'll show you all to your rooms and You'll all have jobs by the end of the week."

22.

1 hour 26 minutes later

Harry had a sore stomach as he lay in bed in the "Medical clinic". The room was medium sized with five beds, a meter apart, a bucket to go to the bathroom with, a few medicine cabinets, two tables, chairs beside each bed, a white sofa, two front windows and a balcony at the back. Linda was normal height with short black hair and was wearing normal clothes. She was sitting on the sofa reading a magazine. Linda had an assistant called Taylor. She had black hair and dark skin and was just over five feet tall, while harry stood at five foot nine and a half. Apart from Linda and Taylor there was one other kid in the room. His name was Danny and he'd been stabbed by Liam yesterday. Danny seemed to be recovering well.

After Taylor had cleaned his cut, three times, she'd given him a few antibiotics and two other pills. Harry wondered if he would live past next week. Grownups were riddled with diseases, probably, nobody was sure yet, and a bite from them was probably fatal. Harry started to think about his family. His mom, his dad, his older brother and his little sister. His mom and dad were dead. His brother had been seventeen and caught the disease. His brother was then bitten as well. His brother had eventully gone insane and killed himself. He wasn't sure about his sister, Ava. She was in dublin at the time, visiting there uncle with mom. Harry wondered about everyone else and what kind of backstory they had. He knew Simon's parents argued all the time. They only stayed together because of Simon. He knew Terry was a only child and that his parents had high expectations that Terry, apparently, never met. Supposedly, 75% in math in the summer exam wasn't good enough. Jessica had no mom and her dad was normally at work or in the pub getting drunk or gambling. Jacks parents were very sporty and fit and they raised Jack that way. Anna's parents were super protective. Anna's mom and dad didn't even know she had a boyfriend until two months after her and Callum had started dating. When they found out Anna had been grounded for two week. To get to Noah's house party Anna had lied, saying she was staying over at Jessica's house.

Harry remembered Noahs house party. It had been a month and bit ago, back in early march. Noahs parents were gone for three days and Noah had throw the most alcohol fuelled party any of them had ever been to. Everyone was there. And after it was over, Noah had let anyone who wanted to stay over at his house for the night, if they were too drunk or had told there parents that they were staying over at someone else's house.

As Harry lay, Taylor came over and sat beside him.

"How are you feeling?" She asked in a soothing tone.

"Worse" Harry replied. "My stomach is feeling much worse."

Taylor gave him two more pills. "If it gets worse tomorrow we'll try something else, Ok?

"Ok" Harry said, before swallowing one of the pills.

"If you need anything else, just ask." Taylor said.

Harry nodded as he closed his eyes to go to sleep.

23.

Brendon looked around his new room. It was around twelve feet wide and twenty long. It was very bare. It contained one window, a single bed, a beside cabinet and single candle. Half the other rooms didnt even have beds so some kids were gonna go out scavenging the nearby buildings. On the scavenging trip they'd go back and get Saoirse and Aoife, who were still in the shop. Brendon had nothing to do and was going go find Callum or Terry or someone but before he could a girl came into his room. She was carrying four bags.

"Are any one of these yours?" She asked, holding up the bags.

"The dark blue one with the Puma logo on it." Brendon replied. The girl left it on the ground.

"Also" He said. "The white bag belongs to a blonde girl called Lia, who, I think, lives four doors down and the black one belongs to a kid with long brown hair and a shotgun called Terry, who lives somewhere down to the right. I dont know about the last one."

"Thanks." The girl said. "Charlie says there'll be a meeting thing on tomorrow at noon."

"Ok" Brendon said.

"Whats your name?" The girl asked.

"Brendon" Brendon replied. "Yours?"

"Maggie" the girl said.

Brendon nodded.

"Ive got to give these bags to whoever" Maggie said as she walked to the door. "See ya"

Brendon looked in his bag. Everything was in there. His clothes, his deodorant, some batteries, his phone, which was completely useless now, a couple of CD's, a portable speaker and a couple of other stuff. He looked out the window. he had an amazing view of the courtyard behind the castle which had a fountain in the middle.

"Is all your stuff still in your bag?" Terry asked. Brendon turned around. He hadn't noticed Terry and Callum walk in.

"Its all there" Brendon said.

"Me and Callum are going our houses to scavenge for stuff" Terry said. "If you want to come you can."

"I'll go" Brendon said. "Are we driving?"

"Of course we're fuckin' driving. im not going out there without a car." Terry said.

Terry, Callum and Brendon walked down the hallway, down some stairs and out the door. When they got outside, Charlie was there, sitting on a bench, reading a book.

"I see you've got your guns back." Charlie said, looking at Callum and Terry's weapons.

"Would you be able to open the gates for us?" Callum asked.

"What for?" Charlie demanded.

"We're gonna go out scavenging for food and get some other personal stuff" Terry said.

"Are you going out there on your own?" Charlie asked.

" We have a car." Terry said.

"The BMW?" Charlie asked.

"Yeah" Terry said.

"Alright" Charlie said, taking of a key from his key ring. "Give it back when you return."

"Thanks" Terry said. Brendon took the key and walked to the gate while Terry and Callum walked to the car. After a fifteen minute drive they reached Brendons house, which was a kilometer outside of the city. Brendon got of the back of the car and looked around. The house still looked the same except for a broken window. It was reletivly big house with a garage beside it and a big field behind it. Brendon, Callum and Terry walked to front door. Brendon took a key from under the mat and unlocked it. The inside of the house was still as beautiful as it originaly was.

"Im gonna go upstairs and get some stuff" Brendon said. "Then we can go."

He walked to the stairs.

"Do you want some help?" Callum asked.

"I'll be grand." Brendon said.

Callum and Terry walked into the kitchen.

Terry walked to the bar as Callum grabbed a shopping bag of a shelf and started pilling food into it. There were family memories all over the kitchen. Mostly pictures and a few drawings as well. It made Callum think about his family. He had a younger sister. Had. His mum killed her in her sleep. Callum and his dad had wrestled her to the ground, dad took her out back and returned with a bloody hammer. And that was that. His dad had been a funny person, always cracking a joke to break the silence. But not that day. A few days later he left in the middle of night. He left a note that read ' Im sorry (Also theres a pizza in the freezer for you)'. His memory was interupted by Terry, who was carrying two glasses with what looked like coke in them.

"Here" he said, passing him the glass. Callum sipped it.

"Ugh" He spluttered. " Is there Gin in this?"

"Sorry, wrong glass" Terry said, grabbing the one Callum had in his hand and giving him the other one.

"How do you drink that stuff?" Callum said.

"Its only two shots" Terry said, before taking a long gulp of it.

"Does it not burn?" Callum asked

"Not really" Terry said.

Callum looked out the window. It was starting to rain.

"Weathers looking pretty dull." He said.

"It's Ireland. What did you expect?" Terry replied, sarcastically. "Blinding sun and thirty degree heat?"

"Remember the spring we got back in 2016?" Callum asked. "That was awesome. It topped 25 degrees."

"You know, that was three years ago." Terry said, sitting down on a chair beside the kitchen table. "Three full years. Where does the time go? Its very sad when you think about it. And in another three years we'll be 17."

"The saddest part is half of us wont live to 17" Callum said. "

"Callum, if you keep them by your side," Terry said, pointing at Callums assault rifles. "You're gonna make it to 17"

Brendon walked into the kitchen, with a small bag on his back.

"Alright, lets go" Brendon said.

They went to Callums house next. It was located in the north of Kilkenny, around Newpark upper. The car stopped outside the house. Plumes of smoke were visible not far off in the distance.

"That cant be good." Callum said. They took food, batteries, tools, weapons and Callums personal belongings from the house. They drove to Terrys house, in the south of the city, last. They took food, batteries, weapons and Terrys belongings from the house.

As they drove back to the castle, they noticed a fight going on. There were two barrels the had bonfires in the, creating a lot of smoke. There were at least twenty grownups, attacking a small group of kids. When Terry got out of the car, he slipped and almost fell on a mixture between blood and water. Ho noticed a dead body five meters away. A childs body. Terry tried not to look at the dead kid as he, Callum and Brendon moved in to help the kids. Terry fired his shotgun and two grownups fell down, dead, as the other grownups, including the five kids left, stared at him in shock. A grownup pounced at one of the kids, taking him down and bitting his neck. Two of the other kids tried to get the grownup off as the other two fought back any other grownups. As Terry and Callum fired at the grownups, and as Brendon hit them with a hatchet he'd taken from Terrys shed, one of the kids, a girl, had the legs pulled from under her, and several grownups launched to her and mauled her, tearing into her flesh, eating her as she screamed in pain. Terry managed to kill the five grownups on her. She was very badly mauled. Chunks had bitten out of her chest, stomach and leg, the other one was missing. She slowly looked up at Terry.

"Shoot me" She said, painfully.

Terry shook his head.

"Shoot me" She said again, loudly. "Kill me, end me. I dont want to be here anymore. I want this pain to end, I want this suffering to end. Shoot me!"

Terry presses the barrels of his shotgun against the girls forehead. She gripped onto Terrys left hand. She was very cold. Terry gripped her hand and then pulled the trigger. Blood splattered all over the pavement. He let go of her hand, reloaded his shotgun and fired at another grownup, almost crying. He didn't know who the girl was but he felt horrible for her. He noticed another kid get taken down by another grownup. Eventually all the grownups were dead. Terry, Brendon and Callum stared at the two kids who were left. Even though they had only seen five kids, there was clear evidence that there had been more. There were at least 10 bodies of children.

"C'mon" Callum said, looking at the kids. The five of them walked to the car. "How many of you were there?"

"Fifteen" One of them, a girl, said.

"Shit" Callum said. "Im sorry."

"Sorry for what?" The girl said. "You saved us, you shouldn't be sorry."

"Im just saying that im sorry for your loss" Callum replied.

"Do you know what its like to lose thirteen people, people you knew and loved, all in one fight?" The girl asked, harshly.

"My mum killed my sister and my dad had to put her down in the back garden with a rusty hammer." Callum said, harshly.

The girl stayed quiet.

24.

The next day, 11:28AM

"How are you doing today, Harry?" Taylor asked.

"Terrible" He replied, painfully.

"Worse than yesterday?" Taylor asked.

"So much worse" Harry said.

Taylor walked to the cabinet. She took a pill out of a cardboard case. Harry only glanced at it, but he saw two words on it were 'Military grade'.

"Take this" Taylor said. Harry took the pill and swallowed it. She then handed Harry a bucket. "This will be useful in about half an hour."

"Why, what does it do?" Harry asked, alarmed.

"It's this kind of powerful antibiotic that will make you projectile vomit for the next 12 hours." Taylor replied.

"Fuck" Harry said.

"Dont worry" Taylor said. "With a hefty chunk of luck you'll be fine"

"Your not really helping right now" Harry said.

"I know" Taylor said, grinning.

25.

12:03AM

"Alright, is everybody here?" Charlie asked loudly, from the top of the stage, which was just a bunch of tables, stolen from a school, shoved together at the front of the room. They were in the room full of sofas, which had all been neatly placed in rows in front of the stage.

Callum and Anna sat on small sofa at the edge of the third row, Terry and Liza were on the sofa beside them. Brendon, Liam, Jack, Micheal and Fionn sat on a massive brown leather recliner chair. On an almost identicle sofa was Ryan, Ben, Saoirse and Aoife. In the fourth row Jessica, Lia, Simon and James sat on an old, knackered cloth sofa which had some questionable stains on it. Beside them were Aaron and his friends Clyde, Richard and Jay. On the small couch beside them was Taylor and Maggie. Linda was up in the clinic with Harry and Danny. And lastly the new people that Terry, Callum and Brendon had picked up yesterday, Shane and Chloe.

"Alright." Charlie said. "Im going to make this quick. First, i'd like to welcome the new group to Kilkenny castle. Second, the new group will be getting jobs to do like cooking, scavenging, security, etc... by the end of the week, which will be tomorrow. We'll have forms for you to fill in. Third, I will read the list of the fallen, those of us who wern't so lucky. Jenny Smith, 13, bitten by a grownup. Died five days ago. John O' Rielly, 14, also bitten by a grownup. Died four days ago. Fourth, whoever keeps stealing the tinned pinapple, stop. We barely have enough food to go around, also you'll be kicked out if you are caught. Fifth, when the scavengers are picked, you'll be going out on Monday, which is in two days. Sixth, in a week or two im gonna send people up to Ikea in Dublin to bring back metirials so we can block up the gaps between in the gates and then build a path way up on and all around the wall for security. Alright, thats it. Any questions?"

"How many spaces are there for each job?" Jessica asked.

"It'll say on the forms." Charlie said. "Ill pass them around now. You can Fill them in and then give them back and you'll have you job by Sunday. Right down two jobs you'd like and you'll get one of them."

He got someone to pass them around to all of James's group, along with pens. Jack stared at his. It asked you to right down your name then there were 6 jobs listed: Scavenger/Fighter, Security, Cooking and Kitchen work, Look outs, Farmers, Cleaners and Washers. Jack circled Scavenger/Fighter and Lookouts. The next question was do you have a gun. Jack wrote no. The last question was do you have any skills that might come in handy. He wrote decent fighter and can run fast. Jack stood up and handed his up to Charlie along with some other people.

When Charlie got each one, he stood up on the stage.

"You can all go now." He said. "Meeting over"

As Jack stood up, Brendon tapped on the shoulder.

"Fancy a game football?" He asked. "Callum found a ball in his room.

"Grand" Jack replied. "What are the teams?"

"Dont know yet" Breandon said. "We dont know who else is playing"

"Who is playing?" Jack asked.

"Me, you, Callum, Fionn, Anna, Liza, Jessica, Liam and Terry said he'd be ref" Brendon said. "The match starts at half twelve. Im gonna ask more people now."

As Brendon walked off, Jack looked at his watch. It was almost quarter past twelve. Jack walked up to is room. It was inbetween Callums room and Saoirse's room. Saoirse and Aoife had been reluctant to go outside when Jack and few other kids went to bring them back, along with bringing back food and looting houses for beds and other stuff. He lay on his bed for a bit until Liam came into the room.

"Are you playing football or what?" Liam asked.


	6. 6

26.

Almost all the kids were outside, on one of the fields. The goals for the game of football had been marked out using their coats and jackets. The people who had decided not play were Taylor, Linda, Chloe, Aoife, Saoirse, Danny, who was still in the recovering, Harry, who was now vomiting from the antibiotics Taylor had given him, and Charlie, because he had stuff to do and plans to make.

"Who are the captains" Brendon asked the group of kids.

"I'll be captain. " Richard said.

"I'll captain the other team" Jessica said.

"Who's picking first?" Richard asked.

"We'll flip a coin" Jessica said. She pulled a fifty cent coin out of her pocket.

"Heads" Richard said, as Jessica flipped the coin in the air. She neatly caught it and placed it on her hand. It was heads.

Richard looked around at the group of kids, wondering who to pick.

"Clyde" He said. Clyde smiled smugly and walked up to Richard and stood beside him.

"Fionn" Jessica said. He walked up to her and stood beside her.

"Jay" Richard said.

"Liam" Jessica said.

"Aaron" Richard said.

"Jack" Jessica said.

"I used to play soccer with Ryan." Clyde whispered to Richard. "Hes good. Pick him."

"Ryan" Richard said.

"Brendon" Jessica said.

"Ben" Richard said.

"Pick Micheal" Liam whispered to Jessica.

"No" Jessica whispered back.

"Why" Liam asked. "Hes good.

"I hate him" Jessica said.

"Jesus fuckin' Christ, Jessica, We're all fuckin' tired of you and Micheal arguing all the time." Liam said. "Nobody gives a shit. You can either keep bitching about it or you can grow a pair, except that nobody cares and never will, get on with your life and stop wasting our time."

"Micheal" Jessica sighed.

"James" Richard said.

"Callum" Jessica said.

"Shane" Richard said.

"Anna" Jessica said.

"Maggie" Richard said.

"Simon" Jessica said

"Liza" Richard said.

"You're the only one whos left, Lia." Jessica said. "C'mon."

"Alright" Terry said. "Jessica, your team is called Plymouth FC and you're shooting that way." He pointed down to the goal closest to the castle. "Richard, your team is Swindon FC and you're shooting the other way. Plymouth FC get tip off because Swindon picked first. Are we all ok with that."

Nobody said anything.

"Bitchin'" Terry smiled. He waited a few seconds for people to get ready, before blowing on his cheap plastic whistle. Jessica passed the ball back to Fionn, who started to run with it. A few other people up the field ran with him, if he needed someone to pass the ball to. Clyde attempted to slide tackle him but failed. Before Richard had chance to tackle him, Fionn neatly passed the ball to Jack, twenty feet away. Jack passed it to Liam and Liam smashed it, full force, towards the goal. The goalkeeper, Ben, didnt stand a chance. It sailed through the goal. Jessicas team cheered.

"Plymouth, one, Swindon, nil." Terry shouted.

Ben passed the ball to Richard. Richard ran with it to the halfway point, then he passed it to Jay. As he ran, Anna tried to slide tackle him. Anna accidently tripped him up and Jay landed face first into the grass. Terry blew his whistle.

"Foul" He shouted. "Free kick for Swindon."

Jay lined up the shot. He took a run up and kicked the ball. Micheal, the goalkeeper, failed to stop it and it went through the goal.

"Swindon, one. Plymouth, one" Terry shouted.

27.

After an hour, the score was five five. But before they could keep playing Charlie came out, asking for Liam, Fionn, Callum, Anna and Liza. They followed Charlie inside. They all sat down. Charlie closed the door to his office and then stood behind his desk.

"You do know why your here, right?" Charlie asked. Everyone shook there heads. "I've decided your jobs." Charlie looked down at a piece of paper on his desk. "Fionn, you are a scavenger/fighter. Callum, Anna, you're the same, scavenger/fighter. Liam, you are security. When the walkway around the wall is built you'll be patrolling it along with a few other people. Liza, you are the lookout. I have selected two others who will be up with you." He sat down in his chair. "Thats all. Fionn, on your way out can you get Chloe and Saoirse, they should be downstairs. And Anna, can you get Terry, Simon and Lia. Thanks."

A couple minutes later they came in. They sat down.

"You do know why you're here, right?" Charlie asked.

"The jobs" Simon said.

"Yes" Charlie said. He looked at a sheet of paper. "You, Lia and Terry are security. Chloe and Saoirse, you two are cooks and cleaners."

"Hold up." Chloe said. "Why do i have to be a cook and cleaner?"

"Well, you see" Charlie said. "You circled cleaner/cook and fa-"

"Is it because im a woman?" Chloe retaliated. "Are you hogging all the good jobs for your boys and leaving the shit ones for us girls?!"

"Listen, I'll explain it simply for you." Charlie said, a bit annoyed, realizing what he was dealing with. "You circle two jobs that you want, which you did, then I look at the paper, which I did, then I tell you which job you get, which I did. It's as simple as that."

Chloe, somehow, got offended by how Charlie had dumbed it down for her.

"You misogynist bigot" Chloe said, angrily, standing up. "You're dumbing it down because you think I'm stupider because I'm a woman."

"No, he's dumbing it down because you're clearly retarded." Terry said, casually.

" both of you chauvinistic bastards are against me." Chloe said, shocked.

"No there not." Saoirse said. "Chloe, you are stupid. You believe in all the crazy "Social Justice Warrier" shit that isn't true that the media used to hype about like the wage gap and that me-"

"The wage gap was real." Chloe retaliated. "The working woman gets 23% less than what the man makes for the same hours. Hillary Clinton even said there was a wage gap."

"Of all the people in the world," Terry said. "You're gonna trust Hillary Clinton? She lost to Donald Trump. Nobody likes her."

"Chloe, stay with me for one second." Saoirse said. "The wage gap exists-"

"Knew it" Chloe interupted.

"Stay with me" Saoirse said. "It exists

because, on average, men tend to go for jobs involving things, which are higher paying, while women, on average, tend to go for jobs involving being around other people, which generally pay less."

Chloe ignored this. "Charlie, im not being a cook."

"Fine, you'll be a farmer." Charlie said. You could clearly tell, by the tone of his voice, that he was very annoyed at Chloe and never wanted to see her ever again.

"No," Chloe said. "You expect me to do a back breaking job so you and your men can eat a roast potatoe?! I want a mans job."

"It is a mans job" Charlie said. He hoped that would shut her up and make her take the job but as soon as he said it he realised that would make angrier.

"What gives you the right to decide what is and isnt a mans job?!" Chloe said, triggered.

"Chloe, how about you tell me what you want as a job?" Charlie asked, biting his lip.

"I want to be a fighter." Chloe said.

"Do you have any fighting experience?" Charlie asked.

"No but give me a knife or gun and I'll be fine." Chloe said.

"Chloe, you'll be killed out there." Charlie said. "I highly doubt a knife will suddenly make you a great fighter."

"Just because I'm a woman you think I won't be a good fighter?!" Chloe asked, annoyed.

"No, Chloe." Charlie said, sounding like he just wanted to go to bed. "I just think that-, Actually, no." He stood up. "Chloe, there are thousands of rotting, blood thirsty grownups out there who's main purpose is to kill and eat you in the most brutal and inhumane way possible. And let me tell you, I have no problem with you going out there and getting killed, I don't think anyone does. Terry, do you have a problem with her going out there and getting killed?"

"Not at all." Terry said.

"Simon, what about you?" Charlie asked.

"Nope" Simon said.

"Lia do you have a problem with it?" Charlie asked. Lia shook her head.

"And Saoirse, do you have a problem with her going out and getting killed?"

"I hope she does get killed." Saoirse said.

"And Chloe, do you have a problem with going out there and getting killed?" Charlie asked. He was fuming. A lot of pent up rage was coming out on Chloe, although most of it was caused by her on the last couple minutes.

"I'm not gonna be killed." Chloe said. "I'll be fine."

"So you're ok with being a fighter?" Charlie asked.

"Yes." Chloe said.

"Ok, good. Now please, get the fuck out of my office." Charlie said, pointing at the door. "I never want to talk to you again for as long as I live. I hope you die out there."

"How dare you?!" Chloe said, offended. "You want me to die just because I'm a woman. You're the soul cause for sexism."

"Chloe, I swear to god!" Charlie shouted. "Get out of my fucking office!"

"What a cunt." Chloe whispered to Lia as she walked to the door. She walked out of Charlie's office and shut the door behind her. Charlie breathed out heavily and collapsed into his chair.

"Jesus fuckin' Christ." Charlie sighed. "She's crazy."

"What a bitch."Lia said.

28.

The next day.

Charlie had clearly attempted to build the pathway around the wall that he mentioned before. He had plywood panels, three deep, over some hastily built stands. The rickety walkway went on for about fifty feet, starting from the main gate beside the castle. Terry sat on the walkway, on a folding lawn chair, sipping a bottle of water. Liam had been with him, but went back into the castle to go to the bathroom and find a book to read. Terry was listening to music on his taperecorder using earphones he'd found in the shop a few days ago. The fighters/scavengers had gone out a half hour ago to find petrol, as the Charlie was planning to send people up to Dublin to scavenge Ikea before anyone else did, as, according to him, it was a "gold mine".

As Terry stared into the distance, he noticed movement in the bottom corner of his eye. He took out his earphone and stood up to look. There was a group of fifteen or twenty well armed kids there. Terry recognized the coats they were wearing. They all wore coats from CBS, another secondary school, around a ten or fifteen minute walk from the castle.

"What do you guys want." Terry asked, keeping his hand on his gun, clipped to his belt. A couple of them looked shocked to see him. Another one with a rifle looked at a kid in front, who had short black, who must've been the leader.

"Take him down" The one in charge told the one with the rifle. The kid quickly aimed and fired at Terry. Terry expected to hear a bang, but instead heard a pop. A dart whizzed through the air and hit him in the thigh, piercing his jeans. As he pulled it out he started to feel drowsy, and he started to stumble. His vision went blurry. He collapsed back into his lawn chair but fell back to hard and it tipped over. Terry fell from the walkway onto the grass below him, unconsiuos.

"It get funnier every time." The kid with the black hair said. Another kid smashed his hammer into the lock of the gate, breaking it. They pushed the gate open and walked in.

29.

Terry woke up. He felt very drowsy, tired and light headed. Above him he could see the roof of somewhere, which was a beige color. He noticed Liza, sat down beside him. He smiled at her. She smiled back. He tried to sit up but got a touch of vertigo and fell back down. After a minute he sat up again, this time staying up. He was in the trunk of the BMW estate. The other kids were pushing down the street. Terry was very confused.

"What happened?" He asked.

"Some kids from CBS attacked us and forced us out of the castle" Liza explained. "We grabbed our stuff and shoved it all in the car but the feckin' thing wouldn't start. Its too much to Carry and Harry, you and Danny cant walk so we pushed it."

"The car was running fine yesterday." Terry said, slightly shocked at how quickly it failed.

"Well, its not working now." Liza said.

Terry opened the boot hatch and him and Liza stepped out. They were on the bridge, separating the south and north of Kilkenny. They were heading to the north.

"Where we going." Terry asked Brendon, the nearest person to him.

"McDonnagh Junction Shopping Centre." Brendon said. "We figure there might be food in the Dunne's stores that's there."

"Didn't we loot that?" Terry asked, confused.

"Yeah but Callum says you didn't take everything." Brendon said.

Terry stared at the car. The only people who weren't pushing it were Harry, who was still sick, lying in the back, Danny, who was sitting in the passenger seat and Chloe who refused.

"I cant believe it didnt start." He said to Liza, slightly in awe. Terry was a car person. He treated cars like living things and cared for them, most of the time.

"Well what can you do." Liza sighed. She didnt care about the car. According to Terry, "She didn't understand."

"Who has the keys for it?" Terry asked loudly.

"Here" Callum said, trowing him the keys from the opposite side of the car. Terry climbed in the passenger seat. He made sure the car was in neutral , put his foot down on the clutch and turned the key. The car started with ease. Callum looked very confused.

"It didn't start for me." He said.

"Callum, If it's a manual transmission, you put your foot on the clutch when starting it." Terry said.

"Oh" Callum said, looking at the ground.

"Feckin' eijit." Terry said, laughing a little.

Terry put it in first gear and kept the car at a slow pace of five miles an hour. All the kids who had been pushing, let out a groan of relief. Five minutes later they reached McDonnagh Junction. They went through the underground carpark, which was the only way in, and Terry parked the car neatly beside one of the entrances. They grabbed their stuff and walked up the escalators, which still worked. The power was still there, like in the rest of Kilkenny, but eventually it would go.

Even though the Shopping Centre was big, there were few shops in it. Inside it was mostly dark, but there was a massive courtyard nearby. Charlie looked around, but before he could take any of it in, he was Knocked to the floor. He instinctively thought it was a grownup but when it turned him around, he saw that it was another kid. Several more came and surrounded the others. The kid stared Charlie in the eyes. Charlie stared back, then spat in his face. As the kid wiped it off, Charlie pulled some amazing martial arts moves and it ended with Charlie getting the kid in a choke lock. The other kids went to go help him. As they did, Jessica quickly grabbed one of them, smacked him with her Colt pistol and held it against the kids forehead. Callum quickly moved in on another, Grabbing the girl by the throat, pulling her towards her and putting her in a headlock as she dropped her weapon. Liam simply rugby tackled one of the kids and held him down. Terry whacked another kid around the head with his shotgun, knocking the kid out. Richard and Jay quickly took down another kid while Clyde and Aaron dealt with last one. Charlie let go of the kid in the headlock just before he passed out.

"Fuck" The kid spluttered.

"Dont mess with us." Charlie said. He looked at the other kids he didnt know. "Im in charge now." He started to walk off.

"Wait, " The kid said, getting up, out of breath. "Who made you in charge?!"

"Whats your name?" Charlie asked.

"David" The kid replied.

"Well, David," Charlie said. "I made myself in charge because me and my men-"

"Sexist pig" Chloe shouted.

"Shut the fuck up, Chloe," Charlie shouted back. "Nobody asked for your input." He looked back at David. "Anyway, I made myself in charge because me and my... people took out your... people in less than a minute. You are demoted to fighter. Now go away." He looked at James. "James, follow me to my office, I'd like to talk to you about something."

"You dont have an office." David said.

"Yes, I do." Charlie said. "Where was your office?"

"I didnt have one." David said.

"Fine, i'll take the upstairs of JD Sports." Charlie said. Him and James walked off.

"What a fuckin' nutter." David said.

"If you think he's crazy," Simon said quietly to David. "You should see Chloe when she's triggered. Shes batshit crazy." Simon cleared his throut, so he could demonstrate to David. "The gender wage gap doesnt exist."

"You misogynist pig." Chloe said. "Women get paid 39% less than men for the same job because you-"

"Shut the fuck up, Chloe" Charlie shouted from the end of the Shopping Centre. "I can hear you from here."

29.

"James, I've made an executive decision" Charlie said. "and I've decided that you will be my second in command."

James smile to himself. They sat on a black sofa beside a rack of football jerseys in the upstairs of JD sport. They talked for a bit more about what the planned to do before going back downstairs. James stood on a purple sofa beside a childrens play area and called out to the other kids there, who were standing around talking, except Harry, who was lying on a bench and Danny, who sat on another.

"Alright everyone, please, shut the fuck up." He shouted to the crowd. Apart from his group, there were few other kids, including David. "Alright, Im second in command now." A few people from his group clapped. "I know, I know. Anyway, anyone who was a farmer or security are now fighters and scavengers because we have no land to farm and we already have lookouts. Now, in reality, we wont need to go out for food for while because there should be plenty in dunnes stores."

"There isnt" David said. "Yesterday a group of kids a broke in stole the rest of anything edible."

"Are you serious?" James questioned.

"yeah" David said.

"Fuck" James said. "Change of plans, we couldn't take any food when we were forced out of the castle so we'll do a massive scavenging mission in an hour. Okay, I want everyone to go."

He stepped down from the sofa.

"Everyone?" Charlie said, looking surprised.

"Dont worry" James said. "We'll be fine."

One hour later.

After James and Charlie seperated everyone into groups, they told each group where to go. Terry had persisted that his group take the BMW but Charlie denied, saying the the engine in the car was too thirsty and wasted fuel, so they should save it if ever they were in trouble.

Group A, consisting of Callum, Jay, Ryan, Simon and Lia were searching a nearby street, full of pubs, restarants and other shops. Group B, consisting of Jessica, Micheal, Terry, Richard and Ben were heading left, hoping to loot shops and cars. Group C, Aaron, Shane, Liam, Jack and Anna were heading up north. Group D, Fionn, Brendon, Clyde, David and a girl from davids group, Adrianna, were heading east. Group E, consisted of five of davids group, were heading across the bridge, to the other side of kilkenny.

While they were gone, Charlie, James, Liza, Aoife, Saoirse, Chloe, and Maggie decided to explore and see if there was anything left to scavenge from the shops.

"Back in the day, I came here a fair few times with my friends." Maggie said, a bit sad, remembering before the disease.

"Same here" Saoirse said.

"It was never that great." Aoife said. "There's, like, what, ten shops here."

"There's at least fifteen." Maggie said.

"There all massive, anyway." Liza said.

"So?" Aoife said. "It doesn't matter how big they are, its about how much shops there are. And this place has very little."

"Thats a very bitchy thing to say." Liza said.

30.

Group B, Jessica, Micheal, Terry, Richard and Ben, walked down street. They'd run into no grownups so far, but Jessica figured that would change soon.

"Do you guys smell smoke?" Richard asked.

"Yeah," Jessica said.

"Sure, theres a fire up north, anyway." Terry said.

"How do you know?" Micheal asked.

"Me, Callum and Brendon were up there a couple of days ago." Terry said. "We didn't see fire but there was a lot of smoke."

"So the whole of Kilkenny will be up in flames by next week?" Micheal asked.

"The river will stop the fire." Richard said.

"So, the whole of the north of Kilkenny will be up in flames?" Micheal asked.

"Yeah" Richard said. "Unless it rains."

"Nobody gives a fuck about the north, anyway." Terry said.

"Wise words" Jessica said, jokingly.

Terry laughed a little.

"So, what are we lookin' for." Ben asked. It looked like he had spent the night smoking weed, which he probably did. His eyes were bloodshot and he had a paticular smell coming off of him.

"I think he said something about cars to loot." Jessica said.

"Grand." Ben said. He swung his hamer, that he stole from Castle yesterday, into the drivers window of the car nearest to him, a ten year old Mercedes E class. The window smashed and the car alarm started blaring.

"Ben, you fuckin' Idiot." Jessica shouted.

"What?" Ben said, dumbly.

"The fuckin' alarm will attract grownups." Jessica shouted.

"No it wont." Ben said. He reached his hand through the broken window frame and unlocked the car from the inside.

He opened the door and climbed inside. He popped open the glove box and inside was the manual for the car, a road Atlas and a small bottle of holy water. In the centre console, he found some old papers, which were about life insurance, a packet of chewing gum and a pair of aviator sunglasses. He put them on, pulled down the sun visor and opened the mirror on it to see how looked. They looked good on him and they fitted well. He looked outside to see where everyone else was. Suddenly, Richard was slammed into the hood of the car by a grownup. Then there was an incredibly loud bang and blood started pouring from the massive hole in the grownups chest. Terry then pushed the grownup of Richard and helped him up before shooting another. Ben looked at the street and saw, at least, a dozen grownups. He panicked and slammed the door of the car and locked it. One grownup threw itself at the car, before trying to shove it's whole body through the broken window. Ben backed up into the passenger seat as the grownup cut itself on the shards of glass. It didn't seem to notice. Ben hit it with his hammer but that only seemed to make it angrier. He hit again, and again, but to no avail.There was another loud shot. The car windscreen smashed and the grownup, who was shot in the head, stop moving. He looked to his left to see who it was, but all manged to see was a pair of baggy jeans and a pair of black adidas shoes as the person jumped over the broken windscreen, onto the roof. Two more shots followed, before a pause, then two more shots. It must have been Terry, as his shotgun could only hold two shots at a time.

Micheal aimed a shot. He fired and the grownup he aimed at fell over. As he aimed at another, he saw Jessica get pushed over by a grownup and get surrounded. He quickly ran to her and fired at one of the grownups there. He Fired at another. When he pulled the trigger again there was light click. His gun was out of ammo. He smashed a grownup over the head with it. It fell over. He smashed another one, which fell over. He grabbed Jessica by the hand and pulled her up. He kicked over another one as he pulled her away.

"Thanks" Jessica said plainly. Micheal was slightly hurt by how plainly she'd it, no emotion or anything but he knew she still hated him.

After Terry shot the last grownup, the car alarm turned off. As Ben climbed out of the car, Jessica grabbed her and slammed him against the car.

"Ben, you knob-headed piece of shit!" She shouted. "You could've of had us killed."

"Jesus Christ, Jessica, take a chill pill, like, for fuck sake." Ben said.

"No!" Jessica shouted back. "We could have died and it would have been you're fault."

Micheal gently grabbed her left shoulder and lightly pulled her away.

"Calm down." Micheal said.

"Fuck off, Micheal." Jessica said loudly, shoving Micheal back with her left arm. She turned back to Ben. "Ben i swear to god, if you do something retarded like that again, I will shove your hammer up your ass."

They walked on, but Micheal and Richard had too stop to go to the bathroom. They walked across the road and behind a wall. Ben followed, keeping guard. Terry and Jessica sat on the hood of car.

"Sorry about the whole episode back there." She said to Terry.

"Dont worry about it." Terry said.

"Do you think Ben will care?" Jessica asked.

"No." Terry said. "Hes not gonna give a fuck. He probably wont remember. Have you seen how much weed he smokes? He'll forget about the whole thing when we get back."

"Yeah" Jessica said, thinking.

Richard poked his head around a wall.

"Come here." he shouted. "we found something."

"What did you find?" Jessica asked, sliding of the hood of the car.

"You'll see." Richard said.

They walked around a wall and Richard led them to down a road and around another corner. Parked on the side of the road was a massive lorry. On the side of it, it read Supervalu. Micheal was already inside the cab, looking around.

"Holy shit." Terry said, starring at it.

"Is there food in it?" Jessica asked.

"No." Micheal said, sticking his out the door of the truck. "Its been looted. But we did find this."

He threw a set of keys to Terry, who caught them neatly.

"I was thinking," Micheal said. "Maybe we could bring it back, fit some metal bars to it, some guns, and anything else and use it for scavenging. We could run down grownups in it and then put anything we scavenged in the back."

"Not a bad idea." Terry said, climbing up the little steps to the cab. "It would be hard to do, though."

"Not impossible." Micheal said.

Terry sat down in the drivers seat and moved it forward until he could reach the pedals. He was average hight for his age, but whoever had been driving this before him must've been massive.

He shoved the key in the ignition, put his foot on the clutch and turned the key. Nothing. He tried again. Nothing. The engine didn't even turn over. He tried a few more times. Nothing, it was dead.

"I think the batteries dead." Terry said. He looked in the footwell of the cab, before finding what he wanted, a plastic lever. He pulled it. There was a loud clunk and the cab jolted slightly. He jumped out and looked for a small latch under the panel gap. He found it, pulled it and, with the help of hydrolics, the cab lifted up, revealing the engine.

"Can one of you search the houses for the keys to another car and some jumper cables?" Terry asked. Richard, Ben and Jessica went to the closest house, 30 feet away while Terry and Micheal kept watch.

"You know, I honestly don't why Jessica hates you so much." Terry said to Micheal, as they leant against the lorry. "You seem like a decent guy."

"Jessica's just like that." Micheal said, looking at the ground "True, i did panic and push her down the stairs into a few grownups but I did save her back there."

"Jessica's just someone who holds a grudge." Terry said. "I find it impossible to hold a grudge but for some people, its simple."

"How long have you know Jessica?" Micheal asked.

"Almost two years," Terry said. "But I didn't talk to her that much until almost a year ago. Callum wanted to start a band and we found out Jessica played drums. Callum offered a position and she said yes."

"Who was in the band?" Micheal asked.

"I was on piano," Terry said. "Jessica was on drums, Callum was lead guitar, Brendon sang and he could play basic chords, Lia played Bass, but didn't join till november last year and Simon was also on lead guitar."

"Jessica forced me to go to one of your gigs at the kilkenny design centre in febuary for support," Micheal said. "And you were all fucking amazing. Your piano solo at the end of Sweet Home Alabama was brilliant."

"Thanks, man." Terry said.

"I reckon, if the disease never happend." Micheal said. "You could've gone places."

At this moment, Richard came back.

"Here," He said, handing Terry a set of keys. "That car over there."

He pointed at a dark green, 2001 Nissan Almera. Terry walked over to it, climbed in and started it. The car fired up and he reversed it out of the driveway, drove to the truck and stop the car beside it. He popped the hood and opened it. They waited for Ben or Jessica to come back with Jumper leads. Jessica, eventually, returned with a pair of jumper cables. They were dusty and covered with cob webs. He attached them to the batteries of the car and truck.

"Jessica, get in the car and keep the rpm at three thousand." Terry said.

Jessica sat down in the drivers seat of the Nissan. "What the fuck is rpm?"

"Just rev the engine, but don't over rev it."

"How do i know if its over revving?"

"Do you see the big gauge with the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7?" Terry asked, very slightly sarcastically.

"Yeah." Jessica said, dumbly.

"Press the acelerater and keep the revs between 3 and 4." Terry said.

"Ok." Jessica said. She looked down at the pedals. "Which one is the accelerator?"

"The one on the right." Terry said.

As she revved the car, Terry climbed into the awkwardly angled cab. He pit his foot down on the clutch and turned the key. The truck roared into life. Terry jumped down, unhooked the jumper cables and put them in the back of the car.

"Can anyone here drive?" Terry asked, as he closed the cab over the engine.

"I thought you could drive." Ben said.

"I cant drive two things at once." Terry said.

"My dad taught me to drive stick when i was 11 but i was pretty bad." Richard said.

"Good enough." Terry said. "You'll only be driven for less than a mile, anyway."

Terry climbed into the cab and put truck into first gear.


	7. 31-35

31.

Group D, Fionn, Brendon, David, Clyde and the girl from the other group, Adrianna, walked down the street, towards the bridge. Fionn and Brendon had been friends for a while and were talking happily, as we're David and Adrianna, But Clyde didn't know any of them well, so he stayed in front of them as he sang his favorite song, All I can do is write about it, by Lynyrd Skynyrd quietly to himself. When the song would finish he'd start it again. He managed to get the sound of his shoes hitting the tarmac on par with the beat of the song, which was a little up for him in this world of downs.

Fionn and Brendon were having an argument over which instrument was best.

"Theres just a sound from a bass that no other instrument can beat." Fionn said.

"Bass guitar is nice, but at the same time, fuck it. I prefer guitar." Brendon said back.

"But bass just has this amazing tone and it's literally the backbone for every song, like drums" Fionn said.

"Personally I think drums are best." David said, butting in.

"nah" Brendon said.

"Do you play them?" Fionn asked.

"Used to" David said. "Wasn't that good though. My rythym was always a bit off."

Fionn nodded. There was silence for a couple of seconds, which was enough time for Brendon to hear Clyde singing a song he recognized.

"Well this life that I've lead has took me everywhere" Clyde sang, quietly. "There ain't no place I ain't never gone."

"But it's kind of like the saying that you heard so many times." Brendon sang. "Well there just ain't no place like home."

Clyde looked at him funnily for a second before singing the next part of the song, a bit louder, as Brendon sang with him. It was almost like some sort of bonding moment. Brendon had sang this song in his band.

"I don't mean to spoil your bromance or anything," Adrianna said. "But there's a few grownups up ahead."

Brendon looked ahead and noticed at least 10 grownups attempting to funnelinto a small doorway of a pub.

"Should we do anything?" Fionn asked.

"Well, There obviously shoving there way in for a reason." David said. "I reckon there's kids in there."

"Should we help them?" Fionn asked.

"Any kid is worth saving" David said.

David's weapon of choice was a hurl with a few nails he smashed into it. He ran over to the grownups and smashed his hurl into the head of a father, who immediately went limp and fell to the floor. A couple noticed him and turned to him but they were taken down by Brendon and Adrianna, who used a hammer, which was caked in dirt. More started to surround them, but Fionn and Clyde started to hack at them from the outside. Adrianna smashed wildly at the grownups closest to her. As she swung downwords, one grownup dodged, and her hammer smashed into Fionns right hand and knife. The knife clattered to the ground, in three pieces.

"Fuck!!" Fionn shouted in pain, backing away from the group into the open, clutching his hand with the other. Adrianna shoved her way through a couple of grownups to Fionn.

"Oh my god, Fionn, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" Adrianna said, in slight shock, hand over her mouth.

"No, not really" Fionn said, still in pain. "My hand is probably broken, I have no way to defend myself, I'm in a lot of pain and, according to my calculations, the nearest hospital is either one month in the past or fifty years in the future."

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry, Fionn, Like, I mean it, I'm so sorry." Adrianna said, stumbling on her words.

After a minute, Brendon, David And Clyde had taken out at least ten grownups and had made there way through the door way, into the pub. There were more grownups inside. They all seemed to shoving there way to one spot, behind the bar. As the kids attempted to hack through them, they noticed Adrianna and Fionn come back in. Fionn had armed himself with a clay flowerpot, which he held with his good hand. He smash it over the head of a fat-ish grownup. Instead of it falling over unconscious, like he'd hoped, it stood there, then simply turned around and grabbed Fionn by his right, and possibly broken, hand to pull him closer. Fionn screemed in pain and he collapsed to his knees. The father noticed the pain Fionn was in. He squeezed Fionns hand harder. Which made Fionn screem louder. The father clearly enjoyed this. He smiled as he looked down at Fionn. When ever Fionn tried to pull away, he squeezed harder. The father then picked Fionn up by the neck. Fionn was small for his age, about five foot, roughly the same hight as Taylor, and he wasnt that heavy. The father effortlessly slammed him against the wall and punched him in the face with his right hand. He then punched him twice in the stomach. Suddenly, though, the father received the loudest whack across the head and he fell over, dead. David pulled his weapon out of the father's head and went to help, Adrianna, who was in trouble. Fionn sat against the wall, staring at the ground, coughing up blood. Eventually the fight ended. Two kids were left, standing behind the bar, weapons still raised. The bodies of the fallen, kids and grownups, lay in front of and behind the bar.

One of the kids stared a them, wide eyed, with his weapon, a brick, still held, ready.

Brendon nodded. "What's your name?"

"Patrick" The kid said.

"What about the other guy?" Brendon asked.

Patrick shrugged, brick still raised. "I don't know. He speaks French or something."

Clyde looked at the French kid.

"Quel est votre nom?" Clyde asked.

"Leo" The kid said in a very heavy accent.

"Je m'appelle Clyde." Clyde said. "Je suis le seul qui parle un peu francais."

Leo nodded.

"Holy shit" Adrianna said, looking at Fionn. "Fionn, Are you okay?"

Fionn spat some blood on the ground.

"Do I look fucking okay!?!?" He replied harshly.

32.

Group D strolled back to the shopping centre, hopping they would never have to go out again in their life.

Fionn leaned on Adrianna slightly behind the rest of the group. The punch to the head left him with a terrible head ache and after the two punches to the stomach, he couldn't stand up straight. Also his right hand was still in agony. Patrick stared at the ground as he walked, presumably shaken up by witnessing the death of his colleagues.

They had scavenged a couple more buildings and had enough food to last a day. They hoped other groups had gotten more.

They only noticed one more grownup on there way back. It looked at them before walking away but David had chased it down and killed it, stating "That's one less grownup to worry about."

After they made it back to the shopping centre, they sat in the car park for a little bit, giving Fionn a chance to rest. They then got up and walked up the escalator. There was nobody there.

"Hello?" Brendon said loudly.

Charlie appeared out of a watch shop, holding two watches. One was gold and very flash and the other was black and sleek.

"Which one?" He asked them, grinning a bit.

"Black one." Adrianna said.

"Yeah I was thinking that as well." Charlie said. He put on the black one and put the other one in his pocket.

"I see you picked up some extra company along the way." Charlie said, casting an eye on Patrick and Leo. "Did you get food.?"

"A days worth." Clyde said.

"Cool" Charlie said.

Adrianna walked Fionn to the medical clinic, which Taylor and Linda had setup in a shop called T. K. Max. They also dragged a couple of sofas in from other shops for patients to lie down on. Harry and Danny were lying down, Harry was asleep.

"We've another one for you." Adrianna said, looking at Taylor.

"What happen to him." She asked.

"I hit his hand with a hammer, than he was punched by a grownup twice in the stomach, once in the head."

"Nasty" Taylor said. "Don't worry, uh, sorry, what your name?"

"Adrianna" Adrianna said.

"Don't worry, Adrianna, We'll do the best we can for him." Taylor said.

"Let me sit down for a minute and I'll be fine." Fionn insisted.

"Shut up, Fionn, you need rest." Taylor said.

Taylor walked him to a sofa and lay him down.

"Hold out your hand." Taylor said. Fionn held up his right hand. It was purple and had swelled up terribly.

"Well, there's not much I can do about about that." Taylor said. She looked over at Linda, who was talking to Danny. "Is there any way we can help a broken hand?"

"Not a clue." Linda replied.

"Well, I guess we'd better cross are fingers and hope for the best." Taylor said.

"I can't cross my fuckin fingers" Fionn said, holding up his, presumably, broken hand.

"Guess you'll die then." Taylor shrugged.

Brendon stared through the view finder in his old film camera and snapped a shot of the inside of the shopping centre. He'd been back for about 10 minutes, and remembered there was camera shop here. It hadn't been scavenged, because nobady cared about it, so Brendon stole film out of it and shoved it in his camera. He wanted to take some shots of the world which was practically collapsing around them. If they survived, it would be pictures of history. If they didn't survive, it would be pictures of the end of civilization itself.

While taking another photo, he noticed Jessica's group come up the escalator, into the shopping centre. He walked over to them.

"How's it goin'?" He asked.

"Great" she said. "We found a truck. Micheal was thinking he would modd the shit out of it, put steel bars and knives and stuff on the front and all that."

"Will he though?" Brendon said, dismissively. He thought it would really cool to do but they lacked tools, resources and fuel for the truck.

"Probably not." Jessica said.

Most of the groups returned in the next hour. Against all the odds, all the kids had returned in one piece. Group C, consisting of Aaron, Shane, Liam, Jack and Anna were last to arrive. Liam and Jack walked to the closest person to them, who was Simon.

"Where's Charlie?" Liam asked.

"In his office, I think." Simon replied. "Why?"

"Because shit is about go down." Liam said.

Simon simply nodded and continued to read his book. He didn't seem to care.

Jack and Liam walked to Charlie's office in the JD sport shop.

"Charlie, we've got a big problem." Jack said, as soon as he saw Charlie, who was sitting in a black leather spinning chair he brought up to the shoe corner in the shop.

"Go on." he said, leaning back in his chair.

"There's a big, fucking fire up north." Liam said. "This bitch is a few kilometers away. Maybe 11 or 12. We should probably get out of here now."

"Appart from the fact that we have no where to go, the chance of the fire making its way all the way over here is very unlikely, especially because of the weather we have here in Ireland. And, if we were to leave now, or at any time, we would risk an attack from grownups."

"I guess," Liam said. "But that fire is massive."

"Liam, we'll keep everything packed up for the next few days," Charlie said. "So if the fire gets to close, we can simply bung everything into the truck and get out."

"Alright, grand." Liam said. "I'm happy with that."

33.

Simon stared at nothing. He had had a terrible night's sleep. The kids had took anything that offered some sort of comfort, some even sleeping in a kids play area, which was near the end of the shopping centre. Simon decided to go for a walk, to wake him up.

After a couple of minutes he ended up at the other end of the shopping centre, at T. K. Max. The bottom floor of it was used for the sick bay clinic thing, but the top floor was untouched, so Simon decided to look for clothes. As he walked to the stairs, he saw Harry signaling to him to go to him. Simon walked to him.

"Help me up, will ya?" Harry said, sounding tired. He looked a mess. The bags in his eyes were purple, his skin was white and his bright, blonde hair was everywhere.

Simon pulled him up and Harry leant on him.

"Is there any food?" Harry asked.

"We left some in Dunnes." Simon said.

"Nice" Harry said. They walked to Dunnes. Harry leant on Simon, as he hadn't eaten in days and was weak.

"Whats your name?" Harry asked as they walked. He'd been with Simon for a bit and had talked to him a bit but he just couldn't remember. Then Harry was put in the sick bay clinic thing and didn't see Simon much again.

"Simon." Simon replied.

"So, what happened while I was sick?" Harry asked.

"Um, we, uh.. Oh, we found a massive truck," Simon said. "We lost all our food and the castle to Kids from CBS and there's a big fire going to ingulf the whole north side of Kilkenny."

"Sounds like you had a blast." Harry said, sarcastically.

"So much fun." Simon said. "I love being forced out of a safe place by a short kid holding a saw to the side of my neck, then pushing a big, heavy car halfway here because Terry was shot with a tranquiliser dart and none of us could start it."

After Harry chomped down half a box of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, they went searching for his guns. As they searched, Harry started to walk on his own again. When they found the guns, in the back of the BMW, however, Simon would hold on the one of them as Harry was still too weak to carry both.

The rest of the day was uneventful.

Liza had been up on the roof for a couple of hours, keeping a lookout, although, it was pretty pointless. She could barely see any road from where she was as the building was to far in from the street. She sat there reading a book, The Enemy. Terry had given it to her a couple of days ago. He had taken it from his old house. The book was alright, although Terry said the second one was much better. Lisa didn't like the way Maxie was the centre of attention in the book, as she was to boring of a character, to emotional, wasnt funny, and didn't even make an attempt to be. She also didn't like the focus on Small Sam. He was to pampered by the author, and could practically survive anything. If an atom bomb was dropped on him in the next chapter and he survived, Liza wouldn't even be surprised.

As the sun was just beginning to set, she heard the hatch for the roof. She looked around to see Terry coming up.

"Hey." Liza said.

"Hey" Terry said back. He sat down beside her on the ventilation machine, before lying back on it.

"Do you think we'll still be here in five years?" Terry asked, staring at the darkening sky.

"No" Liza said, putting down her book and lying down beside him.

"Really?" Terry said. "You think we have no chance of survival."

"Not really." Liza said. "I mean, it could be possible, but we're just kids and there adults."

"But we're armed." Terry said, patting his shotgun.

"We don't have a clue what we're doin', though." Liza said. "Luck is what's brought us this far."

"Well, you know, shit happens," Terry said. "It can be good, it can be bad."

Liza didn't have a reply so she stayed quiet, staring at the sky.

"Do you hear that?" Liza asked.

"What?" Terry asked.

"The light crackling sound." Liza said.

"Yeah, I think." Terry said, sitting up. "What is that?"

Terry stood up. Him and Liza were in the middle of the roof. It extended for at least twenty meters on each side. Terry started to walk around to each corner, looking for the source of the sound. He looked on at another end, around a taller building. He could see a massive plume of smoke in the air, being blown west, away from them. It was behind a building, roughly a kilometer away.

"Well, Shit." Terry said, casually.

"What is it?" Liza asked.

"Fire." Terry said.

Liza walk up to him and stood beside him.

"Fucking hell." She said, a little in awe, starring at the massive ploom of smoke. "Should we tell them?"

"I guess." Terry said.

Liza grabbed her stuff and they climbed through the hatch, into an old storage area. They walked through another door, into the main shopping centre.

"Charlie!!" Terry shouted. Charlie appeared a few seconds later. He walked to them.

"What is it?" He asked.

"We need to pack up our shit and get the fuck out of here." Terry said.

"Why?" Charlie asked.

"There's a massive fire," Terry said. "It's spreading in our direction and it's only about a kilometer away."

"Shit." Charlie said. "Are you shore?"

"You can go take a look if you don't believe me." Terry said.

"No, no. I believe you." Charlie thought for a second. "I want you two to go tell people to load there stuff into the truck. I'm gonna go get James."

Charlie ran off, looking for James. He eventually found him, sitting with Harry, Jack, Liam and Ryan. He brought James up to his office.

"We have a big problem." Charlie said.

"With what?" James asked.

"Fire." Charlie explained. "There's a massive one a kilometer away. We need to get out of here but I need help deciding where to go."

"We should go back to the castle." James said. "If we ram the lorry through the gate, we'll catch the bastards from CBS by surprise. We have more people as well."

"Are you sure?" Charlie said.

"No." James said. "But we don't have that much options. Theres the castle, CBS primary, which is a shit hole, The Pobail Scoil, which has no water or food source, Kierren Collage, which I wouldn't go to because there aren't walls on all sides and maybe the Watershed. And don't forget, the castle has survived for hundreds of years, and it'll require less maintenance."

" Alright," Charlie said." We'll go back to castle."

Charlie and James stood up to leave. As they walked out, Charlie ran back in and grabbed his spinning chair. It was too new and comfy to leave behind. He rolled it to the centre of shopping centre, near the entrance were everyone was, and stood on it. He whistled loudly to get peoples attention.

"As you've probably already heard, there's a big fire and we need to leave now." Charlie said. The crowd of children broke into a chat of cunfusion.

"Shut up." Charlie shouted. "The truck is going to he loaded with our belongings, food and most of you. I believe we have a couple of cars."

"We have two other cars." Terry said. "But only me and Richard can drive. So we'll have to leave one behind."

"I can drive." Patrick said.

Terry tossed Patrick the keys for the BMW.

"When Charlie's done talking, take it for a spin around the car park, so you can get used to it, then park it beside the truck " Terry said.

"Anyway," Charlie continued. "I want anyone who was in David's group to load the food into the truck and everyone's belongings. I want my to grab clothes and batteries and other useful stuff like that and load it in the truck. We're gonna be leaving in ten minutes, so hurry the fuck up."

Kids scrambled all over the shop, grabbing what they could. Charlie got down from his chair. He wheeled it to the escalotors and carried it down towards the truck. Many kids followed him, carrying whatever they picked up. It was a bit chaotic. Kids were shouting, panicking. Some seemed overly calm and Ben just seemed high.

Jack and Liam ran over to the Sick Bay. Liam went to help Danny and Jack picked up Fionn, who was sleeping, and started walking to the truck.

"Let me down." Fionn said as soon as he woke up. Jack let him down.

"What the fuck is happening?" Fionn asked, noticing all the kids running around around, grabbing whatever they could.

"Theres a fire up north making its way down here." Jack said. "And its a fucking big one."

"Quickly," Fionn said. "Help me get my stuff."

They ran over to the other side of the shopping centre, where the other had been sleeping last night. It had already been cleared out.

"It's probably in the truck." Jack said.

"We have a truck?" Fionn asked, confused.

"Yeah." Jack said. "Terry's group picked it up yesterday."

"Nice." Fionn said.

Jay and Aaron ran up to them.

"C'mon, would you's hurry up." Jay said. "Charlie wants everyone either in the truck or one of the cars now."

"Do you know where we're going?" Jack asked.

"Not a fuckin' clue." Jay said.

They ran down the escalator into the underground car park. Charlie and James stood on the roof of the BMW, counting heads, as the crowd of kids stood in front of him.

"Do we have everyone?" Charlie asked James.

"I think so." James said.

"Alright, Listen up." Charlie shouted. "If there's space, I want all the fighters in the cars. There will no doubt be other hostile kids. Anyone who's not fighting should get in the back of the truck."

Patrick climbed into the BMW and started it as Charlie and James jumped off. Richard was already in the Nissan and had it running. He wanted the engine to warm up so he could put the heater on. It was a cold day.

Terry unlocked the back doors for the trailer and people climbed in. He walked to Patrick and leant beside the window.

"Stay behind me." He told Patrick. He walked to Richard and said the same.

Charlie and James both sat down in the back of the BMW. They were gonna fight as well.

"James, is there anyone really smart from your group?" Charlie asked.

"What kind of question is that?" James asked.

"If the both of us don't make it, I want someone clever to take charge."

"Lia's pretty smart, sensible."

"Well, can you tell her that if we don't make it, I want her in charge and that she's to go up front with Terry. I want her as safe as possible."

"Grand."

James got out, walked to the trailer and looked in through the door.

"Lia." He said loudly. When Lia looked at him he signalled for her to come out to him.

"Charlie wants you upfront with Terry." James said.

"Why?" Lia asked.

"If we don't make, we want you in charge."

"Are you sure there's not someone better?"

"Nope. Your one of the only ones I'd trust in charge. Your pretty smart and as far as I can tell, you don't crack under pressure."

Lia smiled a little. "I'll do it." She said.

"Great." James said.

Lia walked to the cab. She climbed in beside Terry. Terry nodded and smiled at her as he started the truck. There was a knock on the drivers door. Terry stuck his head out of the window.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Can I borrow one of your gun?" Liza asked.

"Sure." Terry said. He unclipped his revolver and handed it to her.

"What do you want it for?" he asked.

"I'm gonna be fighting with the others."

"Shit." Terry said, casually. He emptied ammo for the revolver out of the little pouch on his belt into his hand.

"Here." He said, handing them to Liza. "Good luck."

Liza walked off.

"Are you really gonna let her fight?" Lia asked.

"I trust her." Terry said. "Believe me, she'll be fine."

Terry shoved the truck into first gear and stepped on the accelerater.

34.

The first thing Lia noticed when they got out of the car park and on to the road was the traffic. The entrance to the car park was placed beside a small intersection. When Terry turned left, onto John's Street Upper, Lia could see cars and kids, slowly trudging along. There was clearly a blockage of some sort up ahead. Abandoned cars also littered the road.

A couple meters in front of them, a fight had broken out. An overweight boy threw a clumsy punch at a girl with curly black hair. The punch connect with the girls head and she was knocked to the ground. One of her friends came to help her up while another launched a kick into the boys stomach. The boy barely stumbled back and wasn't harmed that much.

"That kids an absolute unit." Terry said, almost admiringly. He aimed his shotgun at the kid.

"Do you reckon I could take him out from here?" He said, Jokingly.

Lia smiled a bit but wasn't in the mood for laughing. The girl launched a punch at the fat boy but missed. The fat boy kicked her in the knee, before punching her in the nose. She stumbled back, clutching her nose.

Lia leaned over and honked the horn of the truck. The fat boy and the three girls and the fat kids friend jumped, a little, shocked. Lia climbed out of the truck.

"Leave them alone." She told the fat kid.

"What you gonna do about it?!" The fat kid said, staring at her harshly.

"This." She smiled. She opened the truck door. "Terry, can you come out for a minute?"

Terry stepped out, with his shotgin held behind his back, so the fat kid couldn't see.

"What the fuck is he gonna do?!" The fat kid asked, confidently.

Terry slowly moved the shot gun from behind his back to his shoulder and aimed at the fat kid. The fat kid raised his hands, but still looked confident.

"You probably have no ammo for it." The fat kid said. Terry aimed it in the air and fired a shot. Terry aimed back at him again.

"Listen, mate," Terry said. "It will only take one shot to blow your head clean off, and trust me, I'm not afraid to do that."

The fat kid and his friend slowly started to walk away, hands still raised.

"Yeah," Terry said loudly. "And fuckin' stay away!"

The three other girls stayed where they were.

"If you want to stick with us you can hop in the back with the others." Terry said.

"Thanks" one of the girls said. She and the other two walked to the back.

Terry and Lia climbed back in the truck.

"Look through the glove box and see if you can find a CD or something." Terry said.

Lia opened up the glovebox. She threw the papers inside it on to the floor and found two CD's: The Cars Greatist Hits and The Essentional Lynyrd Skynyrd.

"Which one" She asked. Terry looked at them as if he was making the hardest desision of his life.

"Lynyrd Skynyrd" He finally said.

She pushed the CD into the CD player. The opening riff for Sweet Home Alabama came on.

The truck slowly trudged on, barely reaching two mph. More than often they came to a stop completely. Lia and Terry noticed a few of there kids, Clyde, Jay, Callum, David and Anna making there way through abandoned cars and other kids. Terry rolled down his window.

"Where are ye going?" Terry asked.

"We're going to see what the fuckin' hold up is." Jay said.

"Alright, have fun." Terry said, rolling up his window.

They continued walking. It seemed more chaotic the further they walked. They walked past sevral fights happening, they walked past a thirteen year old who had been stabbed in the back and lay on the road, unmoving. After a five minute walk, they reached the bridge, separating the North and south side. There was a bus blocking the entire bridge. Whoever had been in it, must've somehow lost control or something, as the concrete barriers had been broken and the front wheels of the bus hung over the edge. Sevral kids stood beside it arguing.

"Hey lads." Jay said loudly, over the symphony of honking horns behind him, walking up to them. "Is there any way ye could move this bus."

The kids ignored him. Callum walked up beside Jay, holding his gun.

"I don't care what your arguing about," Jay said to one of them "Can you just move the bus."

"I've tried," One of the kids said. "It's stuck."

"Could we not just get someone with a car to push it into the river?" Callum asked.

"Probably." The kid said.

Callum looked at the big line of traffic behind them. Someone would be willing to help. Him and Anna strolled towards the car closest to them, a 2006 Chrysler Voyager. He knocked on the window and the driver rolled it down. She was small-ish and had short brown hair.

"Do you mind helping us push the bus out of the way?" Callum asked.

"Fine" She said, stepping out of the car.

"You can stay in the car" Callum said. "We were gonna use it to push the bus over the bridge.

The girl nodded and stepped back in the car. She drove it up beside the bus. She couldn't get behind it. The girl shook her head.

" I can't get behind it." She said.

"We're gonna have to get someone to drive the bus in." Callum said, looking at the kids who were still arguing.

"It's stuck." A kid said. "There's nothing you can do."

"When you tried to get it out," Callum asked. "Did you try going forward?

" That wouldn't get it out. " The kid said.

" I know that, " Callum said. "But it would unblock the road."

"It would probably work." The kid said. "But whoever has to drive it will be killed."

"Either one person can be killed by drowning in the bus or we can all be killed by the crowd of angry drivers who are stuck out there." Clyde said. As looked at the queue of people, he noticed one of his group running towards them, weeving through traffic.

35.

Aaron was out of breath when he reached the kids.

"Grownups." He panted. "Nobody realised they'd be pushed away by the fire as well. There's at least five hundred of them, more probably."

They stared at him for a second.

Callum ran over to the girl in the mini van.

"What's your name?" He asked her.

"Alexandra" She said.

"Listen, Alexandra," He said. "I just want you to try and push the the bus. It doesn't matter what angel, just push."

Alexandra posistioned her mini van and pressed the accelerator. The mini van lightly hit into the side of the bus. Alexandra pressed her foot harder down on the accelerator. The engine screemed as it tried the push the bus. It was no good. The bus stayed were it was

" Fuck" Callum said.

"Callum?" David asked.

"Yeah?" Callum said.

"Do you think, if we moved those two cars," David said, pointing to a small side road that ran parallel to the river. "We could maybe get people drive down there and cross the river over the foot bridge?"

"Is it wide enough?" Callum asked.

"It's wide enough for one car." David said.

"Yeah, go for it." Callum said. The six of them walked to the abandoned cars. Callum broke the windows to both of them with the butt of one of his assault rifle. They realesed the handbrakes in them and they rolled smoothly out of the way.

"Jay, Clyde?" Callum asked. "Can you go up to the bridge so you can direct the traffic and make sure no one is being a retard?"

"Yeah, no problem." Clyde said. Him and Jay started walking to the bridge.

"David, Aaron and Anna, can you tell the drivers over there to come down here and over the bridge?" Callum asked.

"Yeah" David said. "But what are you gonna do?"

"Im going down the road to help fight off the grownups." Callum said.

"You'll be killed." David said.

"Oh, well." Callum said.

He started to walk away. Anna looked at David and Aaron.

"Good luck." She said, before running after Callum and walking beside him. Callum put and arm around her shoulder as they walked.

David walked up to the nearest car and tapped on the window. The kid inside rolled down the window.

"That bridge is blocked," David said to him. "But if you go down the road to the right you can drive the car across the foot bridge."

"Wouldnt it collapse?" The kid asked.

"Shit if I know." David shrugged. "But it's better than sitting here doing nothing."

The kid nodded and drove down the little side road to the bridge.

"There might be a couple of speed bumps on it," Jay told the kid, pointing at two dead, rotting bodies halfway across the bridge. "But don't worry about them."

The kid turned his car left onto the bridge. He misjudged the radius of the turn and scrapped the bumper off the railings. As the kid sped across, Jay looked at the bridge. It was a slightly arched, with blue painted iron bars or tubing or something across the top. The more Jay stared at it, the more he realised it wouldn't hold more than one car at a time. The walkway itself was made of just wood planks, like the ones he had on the rear decking in his old house, but he figured it was supported underneath somehow.

Jay and Clyde got sevral cars across, one by one. Jay watched another one go across. As it rolled over one of the bodies, doing about 10 mph, the car suddenly juddered violently and stopped. The owner got out of it, quickly looked around the car, than put his hand to his face, looking disappointed. Jay quickly ran over to the kid, squeezing past his little Ford Fiesta, which took up almost all the space on the bridge.

"What happened?" He asked.

"I think I broke a feckin wishbone in the car." The kid said, in a heavy Irish accent.

"What?" Jay said.

The kid pointed at the left front wheel. "That's completely straight." He ran around to the other said. "But the wheel on this side is full right."

"Can you not just turn the steering wheel to correct it?" Jay asked.

"Nope" The kid said. The kid demonstrated. He climbed in the car, and turned the steering wheel left and right. None of the wheels moved.

"Shit" Jay said. "How the fuck could that happen?"

"Well," The kid said. "The car wasn't road legal because of the rust, I had it up on the farm, and used it like a project car. I assume the wishbone, like the rest of the car, is just made rust. It would've fallen apart anyway."

Horns started to blare from the start of the bridge.

" Do you think we could push it?" Jay asked.

" We can try." The kid said.

"What's your name, anyway?" Jay asked as they pushed

"Taidgh." the kid said. "You?"

"Jay" He told him.

Jay heard footsteps on the bridge. He looked back and saw Clyde running towards him.

"What's the hold up?" Clyde asked.

"This man's car fecked itself."

Jay said.

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Clyde, you can tell your man in the massive jeep to get of the bridge." Jay pointed at a jeep making its way towards them, followed by two other cars.

"Fuck!" Clyde said. Anymore than one car would be to much for the bridge, it wasn't designed for cars.

The jeep stopped five feet shy of them and a tall girl with long black hair got out.

"Could you be any fuckin' slower?" The girl said, rudely.

"Get of the bridge." Clyde said.

"I would but thats in the way." The girl said, pointing at the Taidgh's red Ford.

"No, go backwards, ya retard." Clyde said. He could hear the horns of the two other cars on the bridge.

"Call me a retard again and I'll bust your head open!" The girl said, harshly.

"I'm not in the mood to fight." Clyde said. "Just get your jeep off the bridge or you'll fuck everything up for the rest of us. Trust me. Actually you know what, fuck this."

He walked up to Jay. "Let's go back to the others."

As he started to walk, there was an unbelievably loud snap and screech. A second later he felt himself get engulfed by icy cold water. After a few seconds he gained his senses and imidietly started to swim up. He broke the surface of the water. He looked around, seeing a couple of kids, who had probably been in the other two cars, struggling in the water

" Jay?!" He called out. A few seconds later something broke from the surface. It was the kid Jay had been helping earlier.

The river was slowly starting to pull them downstreem, towards the first bridge. He started to swim towards the land. The banks of the river were about five feet tall, made of stone and had a ladder built into them every dozen or so meters. Clyde saw a life bouy sale through the air. It went over him and splashed beside the kids Jay had been helping. He was clearly having trouble swimming with a trench coat on.

After another fifteen seconds Clyde reached the ladder. He looked back and saw the kid Jay was helping was still struggling. He was close to Clyde but he wasnt going to reach the ladder. Clyde stretched out his hand as far as it would go. The kid just managed to grab onto it and Clyde pulled him in. Clyde climbed up the ladder and the kid followed. They both sat down on the long grass strip beside the river. The kid who through the life bouy knelt down beside them.

"Are you ok?" He asked.

"Yeah" Taidgh said. "But there not." He pointed at two kids, screemimg and splashing in the water, being dragged downstreem by the brown river.

Clyde remembered that his dad told him that the river used to be less than two meters deep but flooding had become so common that in the 90's they deepened the river to 3 meters and built higher banks. It wasn't especially important, he just remembered.

As Clyde looked around, he noticed a group of kids, dripping wet, sitting on the bank, 15 meters away. He recognised one of them immediately. It was the girl who wouldn't move her jeep only a couple of minutes ago. He stood up and walked over to her. He tapped on her back as he knelt down behind her. She turned around.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Clyde said, plainly. "I wanted to make sure every one got across safely because I cared about them. You thought you could be smart, be real clever, somehow, and, even though I asked you not to, you drove up to us, on a bridge that clearly wasn't made to support the weight of a car. And, surprisingly enough, it collapsed. One of my best friend's, Jay, was there. I didn't see him struggling in the water, I didn't see him get out of the water, I didn't see him up here. He's dead."

"I had five other kids in that car." The girl said. "Only one made it out alive."

"Guess who's fault that is." Clyde said, plainly. He walked off and sat down beside the kid Jay was helping. Clyde looked at the river for a few seconds and then started to cry. Someone sat down beside him. It was Aaron. He stared into the river, blankly. He wasn't there for the collapse, but he clearly new that Jay didn't make it.


	8. 36-40

36.

"Shit!" Ryan said, after firing shot at a grownup, and missing. He was kneeling down on the roof of the BMW. The mass of deseased grownups trodded on, less then 100 meters from where Ryan knelt. Ryan kept his distance as his rifle was terrible in close combat. Ryan had been joined by someone else a couple of minutes ago. This kid was using some sort of enhanced BB gun and, like Ryan, had shit aim.

"Over there." The kid said, pointing at two grownups who had deviated from the main group. Ryan aimed and pulled the trigger. A bullet smashed through the grownups hip and it fell over, oozing blood. The other one simply stepped around its fallen companion. As Ryan pulled the bolt back on his rifle, there was a popping noise and a small bb hit the grownup in the leg. It stumbled, but didn't fall. Ryan fired another shot and the grownup went down.

Up ahead, kids were fighting the main group of them. It had started with Ryans group, but as word got around that the grownups were coming, they were joined by more and more kids. At least two hundred of them know, but there must've been over a couple thousand grownups.

Ryan's group had been unlucky, because apart from a couple of cars full of kids behind them, they were closest to the grownups.

"I'm out." Ryan said. He had run out of ammo for his rifle. There was more in his granddad's basement, but that was all the way up near Saint lukes hospital, at the very north of kilkenny city.

The kid handed Ryan his knife.

"C'mon," He said. "We're pretty feckin useless up here, we might be good down there."

He jumped down from the top of the car. Ryan did the same. Ryan threw his rifle into the backseat of the BMW and him and the kid ran to the others.

Ryan ran up beside Saoirse and plunged his knife into a grownup. He twisted the knife and pulled it out.

Saoirse was surprisingly skilled with her machete. She was cutting and stabbing her way through any grownup in her way. Even though she had only been fighting for ten minutes, her pink t shirt was now stained red.

Ryan wasn't too bad with the knife, but he wasn't good. He just wasn't good with weapons in general.

The kid with the bb gun fell to the ground as grownups surrounded him. Ryan stabbed a couple of the grownups as the kid jabbed his bb gun at the grabbing hands of the grownups. Saoirse ran over and made quick work of the grownups as Ryan helped the kid up. The kid gave him a thumbs up, before smacking another grownup with his bb gun.

As Ryan stabbed another, he could here the sound of an engine roaring and, seconds later, he saw the BMW smash into the mass of grownups. It continued for about 30 feet before stopping. Callum and Anna climbed out through the sun roof and stood on the roof, firing shots at the grownups with their guns.

"We've got a problem." Patrick shouted through the sunroof.

"Whatever it is, it can wait." Callum said, sending a spray of shots into several grownups that were attempting to climb onto the roof.

"The car's stopped working." Patrick shouted over the gunfire.

Callum knelt down and put his hand to his head.

"Shit" He sighed.

"It's not even turning over," Patrick said. "So I'm hoping, maybe, that the battery just disconnected when we hit the grownups."

"Can you reconnect it from in the car?" Callum asked.

"No" Patrick said. "I'll need to get out."

"Alright," Callum said. "Me and Anna will cover you."

As Patrick pulled the tab under the steering wheel, releasing the hood, Callum and Anna jumped down, firing at the grownups. They guarded Patrick as he ran to the front of the car. He fumbled, searching for the second latch, which let him open the hood. As it opened, Patrick saw that the positive terminal cable had popped of the battery. He tried putting it back on but it wouldn't stay. The two screws that had once held it on was gone. Why they were gone, he didn't know.

"Could you hurry up?!" Anna shouted, kicking a grownup back as she loaded her revolver.

"I'm doing my best." Patrick shouted back.

He tried to unscrew one of the screws from the negative terminal cable, using only his fingers. After struggling for almost a minute, he got the screw free. He held the positive terminal cable in place and quickly twisted the screw in one of the holes. It stayed in place.

Patrick slammed the hood down, before climbing onto it, over the windscreen, onto the roof and diving through the sun roof. Callum and Anna immediately did the same.

Patrick shoved the key back in the ignition, put his foot hard on the clutch and turned the key. The car lurched forward violently as he had forget to put it neutral when starting it. But, it had started. He shoved it into reverse and slammed his foot hard on the accelerater. After bumping and struggling through fifteen meters of grownups, the car became free.

"That was the stupidest idea I've ever had." Callum stated.

"Yup." Patrick said, nodding.

Patrick drove up behind Richard in the Nissan Almera and slowed down to a crawl. Callum and Anna got out and jogged back to the fight. They met Charlie on the way.

"Are ye doin' alright?" Charlie asked.

"We're fine." Anna asked.

"Have you seen James anywhere?" Charlie asked.

Callum shook his head. "Nope."

Charlie nodded and walked off. After a minute of searching he found him stabing a small group of grownups with a couple of other kids. Charlie quickly finished off the last couple with his hatchet.

"James, we need to talk." Charlie said.

"Go on." James said, turning to Charlie.

"I think we just get everyone in the cars and get the fuck out." Charlie said. "It's too dangerous. I don't want anyone to die, not like this."

"It's better off we take them out now rather then later." James said. " It's not the best idea, but it's better now to take out as much as possible before we're all worn out in the future."

"Alright" Charlie said.

Suddenly there was a flicker and they were all plunged into darkness. The street lights had turned off. The last of the power was gone. The fact that the sun had almost completely set and the sky was a sort of dark blue made it even worse.

"Well, there it goes." James said.

He walked to the main group of kids, who were steadly getting pushed back by the grownups. Charlie followed.

Charlie slammed his hatchet into a grownup. As he pulled it out, another came from behind and slammed a rock into the back of Charlie's head.

"Charlie!" James shouted in panic. He stabbed the grownup and helped Charlie up.

"Bastard." Charlie said, harshly, clutching the back of his head.

James stabbed another grownup trying to get them, then another. But the grownups could sense that Charlie was hurt. Two shoved James out of the way while another grabbed Charlie and sunk its teeth into his neck.

"Motherfucker." Charlie shouted, in pain. He frantically kicked and squirmed, trying to get free, as the grownup slowly pulled him into the main mass. When he couldn't see James anymore, he new he was fucked.

Grownups started to bite him and, within seconds, Charlie took his last, painful breath.

37.

James fought of the grownups, teary eyed. He'd only known Charlie a few days, but he'd grown so close to him over that time.

James ran away from the grownups and to the truck. He leant on the truck, which was completely stopped, and tried to gather his thoughts. He thought to himself, should he keep everyone fighting and risk more deaths or should they all get in the cars and get the fuck out. James couldn't decide.

He knocked on the door of the truck. Terry rolled down the window.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"I need help." James said. "Should we get everyone in the cars and get out of here, or should we keep fighting?"

Terry shrugged. "Dunno."

"That's very helpful." James said sarcastically.

"Get everyone in the cars and get out." Lia said. "Their safety is more important."

"I guess." James said. "Yeah, I'll go tell them to get in the cars. Do you think you can ram through the traffic."

"We'll find out soon enough." Terry said. "Why are your eyes red and puffy?"

"It's nothing." James said.

"We're you crying?" Terry asked, with a slightly concerning tone.

"Charlie died." James said, solemnly.

"Oh" Terry nodded, looking at his feet.

"I'll be off now." James said, awkwardly. He left. Terry rolled up his window.

"Shit." Lia said, blankly. None of them were especially close to Charlie, but he was good kid and a good leader, and he would be missed.

James ran to his fighters. They were easy enough to find, as every single grownup and fighter were squashed into a road only wide enough for two cars and two footpaths. He tapped on the shoulder of one his fighters and pulled him back from the grownups.

"I need you to tell everyone to get in the cars." James told him.

"Why?" Brendon asked.

"We're getting out of here." James said. "It's too dangerous."

"Really?" Brendon said sarcastically. "How'd you figure that out?"

"Im not in the mood." James said. "Just tell everyone. You all have ten minutes or we're leaving without you."

"How are you gonna get out?" Brendon asked.

"Terrys gonna ram through the cars on my word." James said.

"That won't work." Brendon said.

"It's worth a shot." James said. "Just tell everyone else."

Brendon nodded and ran to the nearest person.

Liam slammed his knife into the chest of a grownup, twisted and pulled it out. Jack, beside him, did the same to another. Liam was growing tired. Him, Jack, Harry and Jessica had been fighting for the best part of half an hour and they were all tired. Harry had run out of ammo for his sub-machine gun and was using it like club, ramming, butting and smacking grownups with it. Harry still had his assault rifle but he wanted to save the ammo in that. Jessica didn't want to waste ammo either so she smashed grownups heads in with her Colt pistol.

Jack only had a knife, like Liam and was doing the same thing as Liam. Just stabbing madly at anything that got too close.

They would be overwhelmed soon. Whenever you killed a grownup, another took its place. It was like there was an endless supply of them.

Liam stabbed another one, but his knife got stuck in its ribs. He tried to yank it out but that only brought the grownup closer. The grownup colappsed itself on him and made an attempt to bite his neck. Its jaw snapped wildly at him, less the a foot from his face. Suddenly there was a loud bang and a bullet pierced through the side of the grownups head. Liam pushed it off and stood up, weaponless. To make matters worse, Liam could barely see anything, as the power had gone out less then ten minutes ago.

He launched a wild fist into another grownups head. Liam was considerably strong for his age and the grownups head rocked back furiously. It let out some sort of loud screem, and it felt like it could pierce into your soul. The grownup launched itself at Liam and he fell down again. Jack grabbed the grownup and tried to pull it off but then, surprisingly, he let go and started to cry.

"Jack, what the fuck are you doing?!" Liam shouted, choking the grownup.

"I can't fucking do it anymore!" Jack shouted. He dropped his knife. "I don't want to do this anymore. We battle against them, just so we can suffer. I'm hungry, I havent eaten since this morning, I haven't slept properly in weeks, I miss my parents and I miss my brothers. I don't want to keep living in this world! It's not worth it."

Two grownups pounced on him and sunk there teeth into him, before slowly dragging him into the main group. Although he was gone from sight, they could still here him. Sobbing and screeming in pain as the grownups all fought for a piece of him. The could here the sound of bone breaking, and even louder screeming until, eventually, the screeming had stopped.

Liam had a sickly feeling in his stomach. He had been good friends with Jack before the disease and he never expected him to go out like that. He had always been so level headed, even up until his final moments.

The grownup Liam was choking finally let out its last breath and went limp. He pushed it to the side, grabbed Jack's knife and stood up.

Suddenly, there was loud explosion, followed by an even louder explosion. He looked up and saw an extra thick column of black smoke rise, about a kilometer away from them and a kilometer away from the fire.

"Things aren't looking to well for the North side of town." Liam said to himself.

38.

Half an hour earlier.

Lewis and his small crew moved south west, trying to get to the river. He had three others in his group. It was him, Kyle, Max and Joanna.

They had gone out on a scavenging hunt the night before, but they were cut off by the fire and spent the night in a random house. When they woke up, there was a big group of grownups in the front garden. They didn't have enough people to fight them, so they stayed in the house until an hour or two ago, when they finally left. They soon realised there base would've burnt in the fire so they started to make there way to the river, which would act as a natural fire breaker.

"What's that?" Max asked. Max had short black hair and wore a full Nike tracksuit, which was relatively clean. He pointed at Nolan Park, A hurling stadium (For those of you who don't know, hurling is the national sport of Ireland and each county has a hurling stadium in their main city).

"Nolan Park, ya retard." Kyle sneered. Kyle, like Max, had short black hair. He wore dirty old jeans with rips everywhere, a plain black t shirt and an grey old parka jacket, although the colour was hard to tell as it was covered in blood. He also had reputation for fighting a lot and he was incredibly strong for his age.

"No, what's in front of it." Max said.

"I don't see anything." Kyle said, squinting.

"Yeah I see something." Joanna said. Joanna had long sandy brown hair, which was a devil to keep clean. She wore tight jeans, a green t shirt and a red ski jacket."I think there's a few police and army cars in front of it."

"Should we go check it out." Max asked.

"I guess." Lewis said. Lewis had short brown hair and wore sweat pants, a navy shirt, and a navy puma jacket.

They jogged up to the stadium and hid behind a Mitsubishi Outlander, that was abandoned five meters in front of the wall for the gravel carpark. Lewis stuck his head over the hood to take a look. Army Jeeps, three army vans, police barriers and police cars littered the car park.

"What the fuck was happening here?" Lewis asked himself.

"I don't know." Max said, lookin over as well.

"I think I see people." Lewis said. He pointed to a police car near the entrance, where three figures stood beside. It was hard to tell if they had the sickness or not.

"Do they have the sickness?" Joanna asked.

"All grownups get the sickness, ya eijit." Kyle said.

"They look okay to me." Max said. "One's walking around and everything. I think he has a gun."

"Sicko with a gun, thats a new one." Kyle muttured sarcastically.

"I think we should go over." Lewis said.

"Don't be a fucktard." Kyle said. "There sick."

"They look fine." Lewis said.

"From fifty meters away, anything would look fine, even Joanna." Kyle said. Joanna gave him a slap on the shoulder.

"Im still going over." Lewis said.

"Me too." Max said.

"Me three." Joanna said.

Kyle put his hand to his forehead as they stood up and walked around the car.

"Retards." Kyle said to himself before standing up and following them.

"Finally realized we're right?" Max asked when he came to them.

"No, I realized you'd need a bit of help when they attack you." Kyle said.

"Sir." Lewis shouted when they were near-ish. The grownup in a police uniform turned to them.

"Fuck." Lewis said. The grownup had warts and boils all over its face, he was stooped over and his clothes were filthy. Also, they look in his eyes were different to any from a normal person. He could see hunger in those eyes.

"Well, would you look at that, I was right." Kyle said.

"Not now, Kyle." Lewis said, holding his club ready.

"No, fuck off. I was right and you were wrong." Kyle said.

"This isn't the time." Lewis said. The three live grownups were starting to walk to them.

"Admit you were wrong and I'll stop." Kyle said.

"Alright, you were right, I was wrong." Lewis said.

"Say it again." Kyle smirked.

"I was wrong and you were right." Lewis said, stone faced.

"That's what I love to hear." Kyle smiled. He readied his sledge hammer.

Kyle ran to the first grownup and smashed his sledge hammer into its face. The grownup fell over.

Max stabbed the second grownup with his spear, which was a stick with a knife duct taped to it.

Joanna wacked the third one with here hatchet and it fell over, dead.

Kyle noticed a pistol clipped to the belt of the police man. He took out of its hollister and inspected it. On the barrel it read SIG sauer P226.

"Nice." Kyle notice a few clips for the gun sticking out of a small pouch on the officer's belt. He pocketed them.

"I reckon we should all get kitted up here." Max said, walking over to an army jeep. The drivers door was wide open and with a dead man at the drivers seat. Max didn't care about that went straight to grab the SMG on the dead occupants lap. Max saw two more magazines for it, lying on the passenger seat. He leaned over the dead grownup to get them. However, the grownup wasn't dead. It grabbed Max. Max started kicking and screeming for help. As it went in for a bite, there were five loud bangs and five shots smashed into the grownups shoulder and chest.

"Retard." He heard Kyle say.

Max quickly grabbed the two magazines and stepped out of the car. His clothes were now covered in blood and pus. Max was shaken up, but the SMG in his hand made him feel a little happier.

Lewis had found an SMG as well and Joanna found a pistol, the same as Kyle's.

"Should we go in? " Joanna asked.

"No." Kyle said, bluntly.

"They were obviously guarding something in here," Max said. "And I want to see what it is."

"I don't." Kyle said.

"They couldve been guarding a stash of supplies in there." Joanna said. "Food or something."

"Might as well go in." Lewis said "Won't do us any harm."

The kids walked up the steps to where the seats were.

"Do you guys smell anything?" Lewis asked.

They soon knew.

When walked the final steps, the saw a disgusting and horrifying sight. Bodies upon Bodies, stacked up on each other on the pitch. The pile, at its highest, must have been around thirty or fourty feet high.

" Holy shit, fuckin hell!" Max said, shocked.

"Jesus fuckin' christ!" Joanna shouted.

Lewis just stared at it and Kyle wasn't even fazed. Both Joanna and Max bent over and threw up, leaving a watery pile of sick on the floor.

"You know, Joanna, dogs eat there sick after they throw up." Kyle said. "Considering you are a dog, maybe you should give it a try."

Joanna didn't react.

Suddnely, they could hear footsteps. Lewis turned around and saw around a dozen grownups running up the concrete steps towards them. Lewis aimed his gun and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. He flipped a little switch on the side and pulled the trigger. Nothing. He flipped another switch and pulled the trigger. Suddenly shots rang through the stairway. After some seconds his clip was wasted and half of the grownups were dead.

"Run." Joanna said. The group ran down the steps, through the spector stands and onto the little path that ran beside the pitch. Dead grownups littered the stands. Well, they thought they were dead.

Three stood in front of them. Max pulled his trigger and within seconds they were dead.

A dozen more blocked the path twenty meters ahead and six grownups still chased them from behind. They were trapped.

"Over the fence." Lewis shouted.

The fence was six feet tall and was designed to keep spectators out of the pitch. Lewis knelt down and gave Joanna and Kyle a leg up while Max fired at the grownups. Max then knelt down and helped Lewis get up. Lewis stayed on top of the fence and held his hand out for Max. Max grabbed onto it and Lewis started to pull him up. A grownup grabbed Max's leg and started to pull him to the ground. Another came and grabbed his other leg.

"Noooo! " Max screemed. "Dont let go!"

Joanna was to much of a shock to do anything and Kyle couldn't do much to help with his pistol.

More grownups grabbed and pulled on max until Lewis lost his grip and Max was pulled to the ground.

"Help! " He screemed but it was to late.

Grownups surrounded him and bit into him. Max screemed and kicked the grownups but it was no good. The screeming continued for a full minute until Max took his final breath.

Joanna was crying and Lewis was staring at nothing.

"We've got company." Kyle yelled, pointing at a small group of grownups, running towards them on the edge of the pitch, the only part not cover with bodies. Kyle also noticed four decent sized towers. Each was made of wooden beams and at the top of each one was a big blue canister. There was a 'warning, flammable matirial' symbol on the side of each one. Kyle had a bad feeling about them.

Kyle fired shots at the grownups coming towards. Soon his clip ran out.

"Let's go, Retards." Kyle shouted, loading another clip in his pistol. Kyle, Lewis and Joanna started running up the side of the field, towards an opening in the gate. Kyle could see some of the grownups that had killed Max were running beside them on the opposite side of the gate, hoping to cut them off. The kids were quicker and they ran through the opening, seconds before the first grownup. They ran over the bench seats towards the nearest exit. Just before the stairs out Lewis stopped and turned around. He had a thirst for blood. He aimed his SMG at the grownups who'd killed Max a minute ago, who were chasing them now and fired. The recoil was heavy on the gun and his shots were flying everywhere.

"Lewis, you fuckin spastic," Kyle shouted. "It'll only take one stray shot to blow up the-"

Suddenly there was a ear piercingly loud bang from the tower on the far left. Then all the other ones exploded.

Kyle woke up seconds later in the second gravel car park. On the day when a match was on, this car park would be filled with food stands.

Everywhere hurt. But as far as he could tell, nothing was broken. If you broke a bone in this world, that would be the end of you. There were no doctors anymore.

Kyle heard movement beside him. He thought it was a grownup so he felt around for his gun but couldn't find it. Luckily, it wasn't a grownup, it was only a Joanna. Maybe a grownup would've been better, Kyle thought.

"Lewis?" Joanna said, panicked.

Kyle stood up, aching everywhere and looked at Lewis. Lewis's head was bent at an ungodly angle. It was clear his neck was broken. He must've landed on his head when he was blown back by the explosion.

"Lewis?!" Joanna said, more panicky. She bent down and shook him.

"He's dead." Kyle said.

"Hes not!" Joanna shouted. She shook him furiously, hoping he'd wake up.

"He's fuckin' dead." Kyle shouted. He pointed at Lewis's neck. "That's not supposed to be like that. Joanna, we've got grownups, the big fire and the collapse of Nolan Park to worry about. You're just gonna have to deal with this."

Kyle saw his gun on the ground and picked it up. Joanna burst into tears. She'd lost two of her good friends in less than two minutes.

" C'mon." Kyle said. " We've got places to be."

Joanna ignored him and continued crying.

Kyle grabbed Joanna and pulled her along the gravel until she started walking on her own. They heard the sound of concrete smashing behind them. They turned around and saw one of the spectator stands collapse.

When they reached the junction beside McDonagh junction shopping centre they turned right, instead of straight towards the main bridge, as there were to many grownups. The must've been pushed this way by the fire which wasn't far behind them. Kyle was hoping to reach the other bridge, which was further north, before the fire did. He didn't plan on dying today.

Him and Joanna crossed the bridge to the safety of the south side. However, it was now almost dark and they had another problem. Grownups. Again.

39.

Simon sat, by himself, on a wooden crate in the back of the lorry. He, like everyone else in the lorry, was oblivious to the horrors outside but Simon had his own horrors to worry about.

Tommorow was his fifteenth birthday. Simon worried about what would happen. Would he turn into one of the things out there?

Adrianna, who sat on the opposite side of the lorry with Saoirse, Aoife and a few others, noticed how worried he was and started to walk over to him. Simon had spoken to Adrianna a couple of times and she seemed nice.

"You doin' alright?" Adrianna asked as she sat on the crate next to him.

"I'm fine." Simon said. He facial expression said otherwise.

"You sure your fine?" Adrianna asked. "You don't look fine."

"No, yeah, I'm fine." Simon said.

"You can tell me if somethings wrong," Adrianna said. "I won't make fun of you for it. I'm not a dick like other lads."

"It's nothing, really." Simon said, scratching his short black hair. "I'm just worried about my age, that's all."

"Age?" Adrianna asked, confused.

"Yeah," Simon said. "I'm turning fifteen tommorow and, uh, you know what happened to people who were over fifteen."

"Shit." Adrianna said. "I'm sorry."

"Not as sorry as I'll be." Simon said, smiling slightly.

"Well, maybe you won't get the desease." Adrianna said. "You might be lucky."

"What are the chances of that?" Simon said, surprisingly calm.

"Not likely, I guess." Adrianna said. "Well, if you are gonna die, you can spend the rest of your time doing whatever the fuck you want. Eat what you want, drink what you want, smoke what you want, do what you want. Weren't you in a band, as well?"

"Yeah," Simon said. "With Brendon, Callum, Lia, Terry and Jessica."

"You could get back together with them and jam out for a bit." Adrianna said. "You could travel, as well. You could drive down to Tramore, or up to Dublin or something."

"I've always wanted to go to London." Simon said, thoughtfully.

"That's not gonna happen." Adrianna said, quickly. "Theres no planes now."

"Really?" Simon smiled jokingly. "I didnt notice."

Adrianna laughed a little but she wasn't in the mood for jokes, especially because of the bullshit that happened over the past few weeks.

Suddenly there was loud explosion, followed by an even louder explosion. Everyone in the lorry went silent. Even though it was dark in the back of the lorry, Simon could see the expressions on their faces. They were all terrified.

"What the fuck was that?!" Someone, Danny, who was still wounded, shouted.

"Shit if I know, " Fionn said. "But I'm not going out to check.

They didn't know it at the time, but that was Nolan Park blowing up.

A couple minutes after, the back of the lorry flooded with light as someone opened the door. Liam, Harry, Jessica and Liza climbed in.

" What's going on out there?!" Danny asked.

"The power went out," Liam said. "there was big explosion and now James is making everyone get back in the cars. He's apparently gonna make Terry ram through all of the cars in front of us. Is there any water in here?"

Someone threw him a water bottle.

"Thanks." He said and took a long gulp out of it.

They sat there for few minutes until the heard the sound of the engine roaring and the lorry accelerating.

40.

Terry hated driving the lorry. It was painfully slow, the clutch was incredibly heavy, the power steering didn't work to well, the seats were uncomfortable, it wasted a lot of fuel and there were to many gears on it. But he was happy enough that James was gonna make him ram through the cars. He had been dreading having to stop on the little hill before the bridge. He was worried he might not be able to get it driving after he stopped on the hill. But he wouldn't have to worry about that, provided he could ram through the cars. The lorry wasn't really designed to smash through cars, but he didn't really mind. He had Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd blasting over the stereo and he didn't feel too bad.

Right now, him and Lia were waiting for James to give them the word to go ram through the cars.

"You ever think we'll get the band back together?" Lia asked.

"I hope so." Terry said. "Those days were fun."

"I remember the first time I played with the band." Lia said, looking at the dark sky as she thought back. "I think it was Jessica who asked me to join, she was convinced i'd be a good for the band."

"We were amazed at how good you were." Terry said. "I remember Callum saying that he wished he'd known you could play bass sooner."

"We got a good bit of money out of it too." Lia said.

"Isn't it also how you met Pete?" Terry asked.

"Yeah." Lia said, sounding like she didn't want to remember. "He wasn't really important to me though."

"You and him were together three months, wasn't it?" Terry asked.

"One and a half" Lia said. "He was nice at first but he turned into a real creep."

Terry nodded. "I had seen him a couple of times. He seemed nice but there was something a bit off about him."

James knocked on the drivers side. Terry rolled down the window.

"You can do it now." James said. "Whenever your ready."

Terry nodded before rolling up his window.

He fastened up his seat belt.

"This'll be fun." he said to Lia.

Lia put her seat belt on as Terry shoved the lorry into first gear and floored to accelerater.

The lorry drove forward twenty feet before bumping into the first two cars. Terry was going through the middle, hoping to push every car to either side of him.

The owners of the first two cars swerved out of the way as soon as they were hit. The lorry smacked into the next two cars, who like the first two, swerved out of the way. The lorry had picked up a bit more speed by now and the next cars it hit were hit with more force the last few cars. The car on the right bumped into the car in front of it. The lorry than shoved both those cars out of the way as it lumbered on.

Terry could see the faces of some of the drivers that had been hit and they didn't look happy.

"I don't think we're the most liked right now." Terry said. They were going even faster now.

They continued on like this for a bit until they were just at the little hill before the bridge. Here the traffic was three cars wide, the ones on the edge being half on, half off the footpath. A few kids were traveling on foot here and they looked pretty pissed about what was happening, as the cars would be knocked into them if the lorry kept going.

One pulled out a pistol and attempted to shoot out the tires. He had terrible shot, which turned out to be a bad thing. One shot went through the door and skimmed past Terry's knee. The next one, however, slammed into his right foot.

"Fuck!!" He shouted in pain.

He took his right foot off the accelerater, put his left foot on it and looked at his foot. Blood was oozing out of a hole in his shoe, near the top. Terry also noticed another hole in his shoe, on the top. The bullet must have come in at an angle and, already slowed by going through the door, ricocheted off the bone in his foot instead of lodging itself in it.

"Are you ok?" Lia asked, stunned.

"Not really." Terry said painfully.

When they got to the bridge, they noticed a bus was blocking the entire bridge, except for a little bit at the very right, which was wide enough for a human to squeeze past. Terry slowed down slightly as he didn't want the windscreen to smash. Just before he hit the bus, he noticed that the pedestrian bridge that once stood around two hundred feet away was now missing. He could see a little bit of it sticking out of the river.

The lorry bashed into the bus. The bus was pushed out of the way and it fell into the river with loud splash.

Terry drove up a small road, turned left just before The Left Bank and continued for almost a minute until they reached the gates of the Castle. He smashed through them and stopped the lorry.

Now they had the kids from CBS to deal with.


	9. 41-45

40.

Callum and Anna climbed out of the BMW and looked around. They'd last been here only a couple of days ago and so much had happened in those couple of days.

"You reckon we'll be kicked out again?" Callum asked.

"We better not." Anna said. "I'm getting tired of this shit."

Brendon walked over to them.

"Its nice to be back." He said, looking at the castle, which was hard to see in the moonlight.

"The shopping centre was nicer." Anna said.

"It might have been nicer," Brendon said. "But the castle isn't in flames."

"True." Anna said.

"We're missing a few people." Callum said worriedly, looking around.

"Who?" Brendon asked.

"I can't see Charlie," Callum said. "Jay, Clyde, Aaron, David or Jack."

"So there all dead?" Brendon asked, plainly, trying not to show emotion.

"They might not be." Callum said. "Jay, Clyde, Aaron and David were down by the bridge and there were no grownups there."

"What were they doing there?" Brendon asked.

"They were helping bring cars across the little foot bridge." Callum said. "The main bridge was blocked so that was the only way across."

"That little foot bridge collapsed." Brendon said.

"What?" Callum asked, surprised.

"How do you know?" Anna asked.

"Because I saw it was gone when we were crossing the main bridge." Brendon said.

"Shit." Anna said.

Terry limped over at this time, using his shotgun as a walking stick.

"What the fuck happened to you?" Brendon asked.

"I was shot by some fucker just before we got on the bridge." Terry said, looking at his foot, which was rapped in a towel.

"You better get the bullet out before you get an infection." Callum said.

"I don't think there's a bullet in it." Terry said. "There's two holes in my shoe and I was only shot once, so think it came out."

"That was lucky." Callum said.

"It was more than just lucky." Terry said. "It was a fucking miracle."

Suddenly, everyone went silent. The kids from CBS Secondary (Christian Boys School) who had kicked them out a couple of days earlier were filing out the main door, one hundred feet away from them. Even though they had lost the element of surprise, which they hadn't really tried to keep, there were only sixteen of them, against the twenty something of them, not including the kids who had been in David's group.

"Evening, fuckers." James said loudly, as he slowly but cockily walked around. "Remember us? We're the kids you kicked out yesterday. Yeah, we're back. I assume your surprised..."

"You see the one with rifle?" Terry painfully whispered to Callum. "That's the little shit who shot me with the tranquiliser dart."

"... Your gonna have to let us back in," He continued. "Or be ready for a fight, because we're not leaving without a fight."

Most of the kids raised there weapons.

"You see, we're stronger than you. We've got more kids, we've got better weapons, we've got..."

"He's doing some sort of evil monologue and it's fuckin' hilarious." Liza whispered to Terry. She'd just gotten out of the truck.

"If he was a battle scarred Russian with a long cut going from his forehead to chin in a generals uniform it might sound ok," Terry whispered back. "But he's a small, ginger fourteen year old that always gets voice cracks."

Liza giggled.

"...We can work together." James continued. "We could always use extra help. We could form an-"

James was cut off by a light popping sound, before being hit in the leg by a tranquilliser dart. James pulled the dart out. Within ten long seconds he started to sway and in another five he collapsed.

There was dead silence from both sides for another ten seconds before Harry aimed his assault rifle and fired at the kid with the tranquiliser gun. Harry, surprisingly, shot him in the forehead in the darkness and the kid fell over, dead.

There was more silence for another ten seconds. The leader of the CBS whispered something to someone beside him.

"Charge! " The leader of the CBS kids shouted. Him and the rest of the kids charged at James group.

Most of the people in James in group were shocked by how stupid these kids were, charging at the them with spears and clubs even though they had guns. They shot at the group, not wanting to be killed.

Out of all fifteen people left in the CBS group, only three realised they were fucked. Those three ducked as soon as they were being shot at. The rest of their group were torn to shreds within seconds.

"Well James was right," Jessica said. "We weren't leaving without a fight."

"Wouldn't really call it fight." Simon said. "It was more like a massacre."

42.

3 Weeks Later.

Callum and his scavenging group walked up the cobble road towards the castle. Callums small group consisted of him, Harry, Jessica, Brendon, Danny, Shane and someone called Stanley, who was one of the CBS kids who survived the massacre three weeks before.

The group had just been to high street, searching a few buildings for food. They also had another scavenging group that went out looking for batteries, electrical gadgets and stuff like that.

Callum's group had found a decent bit of food, but after seeing a rival group of kids, they decided to go back to castle.

"Simon, could you let us in." Callum asked when they reached the gate.

"Yeah, no problem." Simon said. He jumped down from the platform beside the entrance. He pulled out set of keys and unlocked the gate. The group trodded in.

"Who has the cans of gas?" Callum asked, as he slung his assault rifle over his shoulder. Jessica handed him one jerry can full of fuel and Danny gave two, which were two thirds full. He started to walk to the garage, near the other end of the castle grounds.

The castle grounds were huge. In front of the castle there was a massive field, about the equivelent size two or three football fields. After that field there was a path, connecting both sides of the castle grounds, after that there was an even bigger field, about the size of three or four football fields. There was little hill at the start of that field. Along the edges of the castle grounds there were more paths, there was a small-ish forrest to left of all this beside the river and there was an eight foot high wall surrounding the entire castle grounds. It was the perfect place to wait out an apocalypse.

The garage stood to the right of the hill, partly obscured by the few trees on that side. The garage was like a shed you'd find on a farm. It had concrete floor, the walls and roof were made of corrugated metal and it was about thirty feet tall. It had originally been used to store the tractors used to keep the park looking nice but those tractors were now parked on the gravel car park outside it.

Callum stepped into the garage.

"Lads, I got three more for you." Callum said loudly, leaving the jerry cans beside the office, which thay had built recently. It was mostly made out of plywood sheets and nails and there was a window shaped hole cut into the side of it. It had been built by Terry, Patrick and Taidgh, who spent most of there time here. They were in charge of keeping all the cars in order.

"Thanks Callum." Patrick said. He was lying under the BMW, which was up on a jack. Callum walked over to him.

"What's wrong with the car?" Callum asked.

"Nothings wrong with it." Patrick said. "But the oil filter is old. You're meant to change them every year and the one on the car right now was installed in September 2012, according to the date printed on it. I should probably change the oil in it as well, but we don't have any so what's in it will have to do."

"Alright." Callum nodded. He looked at the front of the car. The front bumper was heavily dented from three weeks earlier and no one had bothered to wash the blood of the front.

He walked over to Taidhg and Terry, who were under the bonnet of a early 2000's Citreon C6.

"What's wrong with this one?" Callum asked.

"The distributor is fucked in it." Terry said. "Do you remember when me, Taidgh and Patrick went out earlier?"

"Yeah." Callum said.

"When we were out there we brought in the Toyota that's out in the car park and we're using it as a parts car." Terry said. He shoved the last spark plug into the distributor.

"Taidgh, try fire it up." Terry said.

Taidgh sat into the drivers seat and turned the key. After a few cranks the Citreon started.

"Yes!" Terry and Taidgh both said in unison. Taidgh got out and they high fived each other.

"I don't know if you heard but James is setting up a proper dinner tonight." Callum said. "Roast chicken, potatoes and vegetables."

"Wheres he geting the chicken from?" Taidgh asked.

"We have chickens here." Callum said.

"Do we?" Taidgh asked, surprised. "Where?"

"Someone drained the fountain at the other side of the castle and we put them in there." Callum said.

"Oh, cool." Taidgh said, before closing the hood of the Citreon.

"What time did James say dinner was at?" Terry asked.

"I don't have a fuckin' clue." Callum said, looking at his watch. "It's six o'clock now, so it's probably soon."

"Alright, we'll go over to the castle when Patrick's done replacing the oil filter." Terry said.

"Ok, see ya then." Callum said, as he walked off.

"See ya." Terry said.

Taidgh walked over to Patrick, who was still under the car and knelt down beside him.

"Need any help?" He asked.

"No, I almost have it." Patrick grunted. Seconds later there was a loud clink as the oil filter fell to the ground. Patrick picked up the replacement oil filter and started to twist it in place.

"D'you think we'd need to dress up for this or what?" Terry asked from inside the office.

"I doubt it." Taidgh said. "No one has good clothes anymore. I don't think anyone here has a three piece tuxedo lying around."

Terry laughed. "I'll take my good sunglasses anyway." he said. He slipped on a pair of aviator sunglasses. They had gold-ish orange-ish colored lenses and they metal part was colored a more brighter gold. Terry really liked the look of them, especially when they were paired with his long brown hair. Callum used to have a simular haircut to him but a week or two ago he got someone to cut it short.

After Patrick finished with the car, he washed his hands and they set off to the castle.

It was very scenic. The trees swayed in the light breeze, as did the freshly cut grass and the sun hung low in the sky, creating a yellow orange glow. From where they were, you would easily forget the horrors that lay outside.

They walked through the main door. Micheal was the first person they saw.

"Do you know what time this dinner thing is at." Terry asked him.

"In half an hour, I think." Micheal said. "Nice sunglasses, by the way."

"Thanks, man." Terry said, happily.

Terry, Taidgh and Patrick walked into the main hall, where all the sofas and the piano was. Most people called it the sitting room though, because it was easier to say. A few kids were already in here. It was pretty obvious that people were ready for the "fancy" dinner. Though they weren't dressed in fancy clothes, they were in clean clothes, which wasnt common.

Terry walked over the "bar" that he had set up a week ago when he was bored. It was made of a long table and two glass cabinets, one containing cups and glasses and the other alcohol. Terry grabbed a glass, a bottle of gin and a can of coke. He poured two shots of gin into the glass before pouring the coke in.

"Terry." Liam called from the other side of the room. "Can you make me one too?"

"Yeah, no problem." Terry said. He quickly made another one gave to Liam.

"Thanks." Liam said as Terry walked off to sit beside Liza.

The room slowly filled up with more people until James came in telling people to go to the dining room.

43.

The dining room was at the other end of the castle. The tables were set up different to normal. On a normal day, the table would be in three long lines but today, the tables were in some sort off wierd style. They were pushed into groups of three to four tables, capable of holding between 12 and 14. People who had known each other before coming to the castle, or the "Pre Castle" group often sat together in their own groups and the rest of the kids, or "Post Castle" group sat in their own groups. There were more tables at the back of the room where the food was going to be left, so anyone could just walk up, grab a plate and take what they want. After ten more minutes, the food eventually did arrive and the kids went up, took what they wanted and sat back down.

The whole night was meant to be fun, to help people forget the hellish nightmare that lay outside and the people they had known, that now only existed in their memories. It seemed to work, as most of the kids seemed to be in a good mood.

"Do you think it would be safer or more dangerous over in Britain?" Simon asked the table, as chewed on a potatoe.

"What kind of fuckin' question is that?" Jessica asked. Simon shrugged.

"It would be safer here." Brendon said. "There's much less adults over here."

"But there's more children over there." Simon said.

"Which would mean there's more of chance one will stab you in the back over a packet of bourbon creams." Terry said, talking a drink out of his glass of gin and coke.

"Britain also has colder winters and warmer summers, making it harder to grow food or keep animals." Liza said.

"Britain also has nuclear power plants, and eventually," Liam said. "They'll decay and collapse, releasing that toxic shit into the air."

"So basically, what your all saying is fuck Britain." Simon said

"Yeah" Liam nodded, shoving a piece of chicken in his mouth.

Most people didn't talk that much, as they where to busy eating, but when the food was gone, people started to move into the "sitting room" to talk and get drinks.

Brendons band started to play music, as well. Over the last three weeks, people were eventually brought back to there old homes to pick personnel belongings and all that. Lia had picked up her bass and amp two weeks ago, Callum and Simon got there guitars a week ago and only four days ago, Jessica had forced Terry to drive her to her house in the BMW to pick up her drum kit. Terry didn't bother moving his piano over to the castle, as it was too heavy and there was already one here, anyway. They were playing their old set list from a couple of months ago. They already finished there second song, Jean Genie by David Bowie, and moved to there third song, Hot Stuff by Donna Summer. Jessica did vocals for that song.

As they played, James went around, looking for people. The whole dinner hadn't been for nothing. He planned to butter people up, make them feel good, maybe get a couple of the drunk, then ask them for a favour. Most people didn't like to go outside, and he wanted to get as much people as possible for his latest plan. He was planning to send as much people as possible to the North West of the city, around the CBS primary school. Beside the school was a long street full of bungalows, which from what he heard from the scavenging group, hadn't been looted. He'd talked to a couple of people who'd agreed to come along, but he was hoping to ask more.

He walked over to Liam, who was sitting on a sofa, chatting to a girl. She was one of the girls Lia and Terry had saved in the battle three weeks ago.

"Liam, my man." James said, cheerfully as he sat down beside them.

"What is it?" Liam asked, not impressed by how James had interupted them.

"I kinda need a favour." James said. "I want to send a lot of people out on this kind of scavenging hu-, expedition, you could call it, up to Stephens Street, near CBS primary and to the estate next to it and I was wondering, do you want to come along and give us a hand?"

Liam thought for a moment." I don't want to go, but I will go."

" Thanks." James said. "Appreciate it."

"Who the fuck was he?" The girl Liam was with asked, after James left.

"He apperantly runs the place." Liam said.

44.

Brendon walked up to Stephens Street, along with the two dozen others who were going with him. Callum was put in charge of the entire group and the amount of people James had managed to get to go with them was amazing. There was him, Callum, Jessica, Harry, Liam, Shane, Stanley, Fionn, who's right hand was still in a bandage, Anna, Danny, Simon, Liza, Terry, Taidgh, Patrick, David, Adrianna, Bethany, the girl Liam was with yesterday, Ryan, Saoirse, Richard, Aaron, Clyde and Leo, who, in the last three weeks, had been taught a little English. He'd been taught how to say hello, how to say help, grownups, other kids, I'm hurt and Clyde also taught him a couple of swear words, just for fun.

Each kid was wearing a back pack, which they were to fill full of food, batteries or anything else useful.

Brendon walked up to Callum and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Are we really searching through all these houses?" Brendon asked.

"Yup." Callum said, solemnly. "Every single one."

On this street, there was a row of bungalows. Callum stood up on the roof of a car.

"Listen up, fuckers." Callum said loudly. Everyone went quiet. "Were gonna be searching through all these houses. Then we'll stop at the CBS primary school and go home. That's about thirty or fourth houses. We can do it much quicker if I split you up into groups of five. Simon, Anna, Aaron, Richard and I will be one group. Liza, Terry, Saoirse, Clyde and Leo are the second group. Brendon, Harry, Patrick, Bethany and Shane are group three. Jessica, Taidgh, Liam, Adrianna and David are group four. Group five is Ryan, Stanley, Danny and Fionn, who will stay outside and keep gaurd. Don't spend two long in every house. Ten minutes maximum. Alright let's go."

Brendons group went to the first bungalow, which was painted white. Brendon went to try the door handle, to see if it was locked, but before he got to it, Harry had already fired a couple of shots into the door handle and lock. Chunks of metal and wood flew everywhere. One especially big chunk of metal tore a long gash on the side of Shane's neck. Shane cupped his hand over it as blood started to gush out of it.

"Harry, you fucking idiot!" Shane shouted.

"Sorry, man." Harry said.

They rushed in. Shane looked in the kitchen for a cloth, as the rest of them searched the other rooms. Brendon walked into the sitting room. It was pretty small. There was small white couch with a flower print design, a tall armchair with a simular design, a wooden coffee table, a small shelf, a fireplace and in the corner was an ancient CRT TV with a VHS player underneath it. On the book shelf, Brendon noticed an old Camcorder from the ninetys. There was couple of old tapes beside it. He put one tape in his pocket and the other one in the camcorder. He also noticed the charger plugged into the wall and he put it in his bag.

Brendon pressed the On/Off button and, surprisingly, it turned on. On the little screen, it said it had two hours of battery left. Brendon pressed the record button, walked into the next room, the bedroom, which had Harry in it and zoomed in awkwardly on his face.

"Get that weak shit outta here." Harry smile as he put his hand over the lense.

Brendon laughed as he turned off the camera. He shoved it in his bag and he helped Harry look through the bedroom. There was a massive wardrobe, a small cabinet, and a double bed. Inside the wardrobe was mostly clothes, but in the cabinet they found a sevral war medals, all dated 1944 and a grainy black and white picture of a young man in an army suit. Harry thought the war medals looked cool. He took two of them and pinned them to his cardigan.

Harry went to the kitchen as Brendon went the bathroom, wondering if there'd be any deodorant in there, or something simular, to help battle the smell back at the castle as none of them had taken a shower in over a month. He opened the door and as he walked in, something shut the door behind him. There was no window in here and he was plunged into complete darkness. Suddenly he was shoved against a wall by something, gripping him by the throat. As he battle to get free, he had no doubt that it was grownup, as he could smell it. It smelt like death.

He moved his hand down his side to grab his knife, which was attached to his belt. He tried to stab the grownup but missed. He tried again and got it in the ribs. He couldn't pull his knife back out in time as the grownup wriggled around. He then gave the grownup an almighty kick, which sent it hurtly into the wall opposite them. He lunged towards where he thought the door was, but didn't realize how close it was, smacking head first into it. Brendon blacked out and fell over.

Brendon awoke a few seconds later to the sound of shots being fired. He was then dragged out by the feet into the hallway.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked, kneeling down beside him.

"I'm fine." Brendon said, but as he got up, he suddenly got heavy headed. He fell against the wall before throwing up.

"Ew." He heard Bethany say.

Harry brought him into the sitting room, and continued to loot the house as Brendon lay down on the sofa. A few minutes later, they had looted anything worthwhile from the house, which was mostly food. Harry let Brendon lean on him as they walked.

Harry dumped Brendon with Ryan, Stanley, Danny and Fionn, who were on a car in the middle of the road, and moved to the next house. Harry, Patrick, Shane and Bethany walked to the next house. Harry fired a shot at the lock, making it come apart. They walked in.

"Grownups." Danny shouted, suddenly, standing up and holding his club ready. Ryan aimed his rifle at the steadily approaching grownups. Ryan had taken a trip to grandads house and found three more boxes of ammo for his rifle. As he pulled back on the bolt on his rifle, Fionn and Stanley stood up, ready with their weapons. The grownups had come from behind them and were coming up a small hill. There must've been at least seventy or eighty of them. Slowly, each group came out of a house, getting there weapons ready.

"Fall back." Callum shouted when everyone was out. "We'll run to CBS primary, take the next right, go around the grownups and go home. It's not worth fighting them."

The group of kids jogged down the street, with the grownups trailing twenty five meters behind.. But just before they got to the T junction outside of CBS primary, another smaller group of grownups came around the corner. There was about twenty of them.

Callum and his group stopped dead in their tracks.

"Fuck" He said. He pulled his assault rifle from over his shoulder.

"OK, new plan." He shouted at the group. "Fight. Anyone with a gun, aim for the bigger group. Everyone else, wipe out the smaller group."

He aimed his assault rifle and fired. After a full clip, he managed to kill seven. He pulled out another one, which had been sticking out awkwardly from his pocket, and loaded it into his gun as shots rung from all around him.

The main mass of grownups in front of him were fifteen meters in front of them now. They were still getting closer to them, despite being shot at continuously. Soon, though, the kids without any guns had finished off the small group of grownups and most were moving the main group. They attacked at the sides, not wanting to be caught by the gunfire. Within the next minute, most of the grownups were dead. The last couple tried to run away, but David happily ran after them and smacked the shit out of them with his hurl with some nails sticking out of it.

Now, most of the kids were crowding around Fionn, who was lying down on the road, amid the dead grownups. A grownup had bitten him on the arm and on the leg. He lay in pain as Simon poured a bottle of disinfectant on his cuts. Liza then bandaged them up.

Everyone had been so focused on Fionn, that no one had thought to keep a look out, in case anymore grownups or kids came. As Fionn was being helped up, Callum felt a crushing blow on the side of his head and he fell over, almost losing consciousness. He could see what was going on, but he didn't take it in. He wasn't able to. What he did manage to notice was that there were more than the original twenty four kids they started with.

After half a minute, he noticed his rifle lying beside him. He tried to reach for it but a kid with short black hair, dirty jeans with rips everywhere and an old parka jacket, once grey but now stained red with blood came up to him and stood on his arm as he pointed a gun at him. Callum didn't bother trying to fight against him. The kid then took some rope out of his pocket and started to tie him up.

He tried to make Callum stand up, but when Callum did stand up, he immediately lost consciousness.

45.

Callum woke up hours later. Judging by the lighting in the room, it must've been evening. He stared at the roof above him for a few minutes until he heard someone saw "Callum awake".

Terry and Leo walked up to Callum and looked at him.

"Are you okay?" Terry asked. He had a two and a half inch scar under his chin he looked like he'd been punched once or twice. Leo looked absalutly fine.

"Yeah, I think so." Callum said, trying to sit up. His head hurt when he sat up but it wasn't that bad. He looked around.

He was in a classroom. It must've been the junior infants or senior infants classroom, as the chairs and tables were comically small, especially campered to the teens. Callum was around five foot six, Terry was roughly an inch taller, Leo was a little smaller than Callum and even Fionn, who lay at the other side of the room, was too big for the chairs, despite being just five foot tall. Terrible paintings was also strewn across the wall, along with informational posters about how to use basic grammer and how to count. One frog, two lions, three bees, one of them read.

"Is Fionn doing okay?" Callum asked.

"No." Terry said solemnly. "He's got a horrible fever, he's pale and he's really fuckin' sweaty. Even if we do manage to get him back to Taylor at the castle, he stands little chance."

"He is fucked." Leo said, in his normal French accent. He understood only a little part of what Terry had said.

"Callum nodded. "Yeah." He said quietly.

He stood up and looked around.

"You think we can get out of here?" Callum asked.

"I hope." Terry said. "The door is locked but we're on the ground floor and we could easily break one of the windows with a chair."

"Yeah but then what?" Callum said. "The castle is a forty minute walk away and we have no weapons. Plus, it's turning nighttime and we'll want to get out of here soon."

At this moment, they heard the sound of keys jangling and the door being unlocked. The door opened and two kids stepped in. A boy and girl. Callum had seen the boy earlier, just before he lost consciousness. He was also carrying one of Callums assault rifles. He'd never seen the girl before.

The girl was also holding a bag, which she lay on the table at the end of the room.

"Your food." She said.

"Why the fuck are we here?" Callum asked.

"We can't have kids like you running crazy around these streets." The boy said.

"And you're good fighters, as well." The girl said. "We'll want you on our side."

"Shut up, Joanna." The boy said. "They'll never stick with us. The second we send them out scavenging they'll leg it back to their poxy little castle."

"How'd you know we came from the castle?" Terry asked.

"We talked to couple of your other friends." Joanna said.

"Apparently, you have quiet the set up there." The boy said. "And the weapons we took of you were amazing." He pointed at Callum. "You had two assault rifles on you and another six or seven of ye's had some other great guns."

He held up Callum assault rifle smugly.

"Where'd you get this kit?" He asked.

"Found 'em up my ass." Callum said harshley. He clearly wasn't happy about the whole situation.

"Those are some big words for someone with no weapon." The boy said.

"It's not like your gonna do anything with yours." Callum said. "You're to pussy to use it."

"I'd kill you any day." The boy said. "But your not worth the bullets."

Callum walked over to the boy, stopping three feet short and looked the boy in the eyes.

"Shoot me." He said cockily. "Shoot me, you pussy."

The boy had been expecting an argument, but not this.

"No problem" the Boy said. He aimed the assault rifle at Callum but, no matter how tough he seemed, he clearly didn't want to shoot a kid. He had some heart and Callum could take advantage of that. If he knew how.

"I'll make it easy for you." Callum said. He stepped closer to the kid. He grabbed the barrel of the assault rifle and brought it to the middle of his chest.

"Shoot me." He said, not breaking eye contact. "Bet you won't."

"Don't bother shooting him, Kyle." Joanna told the boy. "Mark will get so pissed at you."

Kyle looked at Joanna and then at Callum.

"You're lucky that cow is here to talk some sense into me." Kyle said, pointing at Joanna. "We'll be back in an hour to pick up the leftover scraps of your food."

Joanna looked pretty pissed about being called a cow but she didn't say anything.

Kyle and Joanna started to walk out the room.

"Running away like a little bitch." Callum said to Kyle. Kyle extended his arm and put up his middle finger.

"Ah, look at this hardy man." Callum taunted sarcastically. "Sticking up his middle finger, what a legend."

Kyle closed the door and they heard it lock.

"So basically," Terry said, sitting down. "You've destroyed any chance of us getting out safely for the next while."

"Yeah." Callum said.

"Nice." Terry smiled. "We'ed better make a plan to get out of here, then."

He walked over to what had been the teachers desk and grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen. He signalled for Leo and Fionn to come over and they crowded around a table. Most of the plan would be drawn as Leo understood little English and Callum, Terry and Fionn knew little French but eventually, a plan was written and they were ready. But would it work. They would soon find out.


	10. 46-50

46.

Callum sat with Fionn and Leo in the classroom. He didn't like this room. The chairs were small and hard, as the were made of wood, the red carpet was covered in so much mystery stains you could barely tell it was red and there was a vague smell of paint and vomit. Hopefully, though, if everything went to plan, they would be out of this room, maybe even the school, within the next fifteen minutes.

The more he thought about the plan, the more he realized how there was so much that could go wrong. They didn't even think it through completely. But if the did the first bit right, they would stand a better chance of getting out.

"You reckon this'll work?" Callum asked.

Fionn shook his head lightly. "No." He said, weakly, before breaking into a coughing fit. Callum exchanged a worried glance with Terry, who leant in the corner of the room, beside the door, where he would hopefully ambush Kyle and Joanna, if they came back.

They waited for another couple of minutes, until they heard a set of keys clinking on the other side of the door.

"Showtime." Terry whispered.

The door opened fully, hiding Terry out of sight. Kyle appeared in the doorway, holding Callums assault rifle in one hand and a can of Monster energy drink in the other. Joanna stood beside and slightly behind Kyle.

"Hello, dickface." Callum said, standing up.

"You'd better watch your fuckin mouth!" Kyle said angrily, stepping further into the room and up to Callum. "I don't give fuck what Mark says, I'll beat the bloody shit out of you."

Kyle stood a meter from Callum and around five from Terry, so Terry figured this was the best chance to strike.

He quickly ran from behind the door, grabbed Kyle and put him in a choke hold his grandad had taught him a couple of years ago. Callum immediately made a grab for his assault rifle.

Joanna despiced Kyle, but she couldn't watch him get strangled. As Callum launched a punch into Kyle's stomach, Joanna made a lunge for Terry, but before she reached him, Leo had run over and rugby tackled her. As she was knocked to the floor, she smashed her head against the counter beside her. She let out a low moan as blood gushed out of her head.

Callum made one, big final tug on the assault rifle and Kyle lost grip on it. Callum switched the safety on the gun off. He pointed it at Kyle's head.

"Any sudden moves and I'll put a piece of lead through your head!" Callum said. "Hey, that rhymed."

He and Terry high fived.

"Alright Kyle," Terry said, loosening the choke hold. "I want you bring us to where the rest of our group is, then to our guns and bags. If you do this, we might let you live. You got that?"

"Why don't you just fuckin kill me now?" Kyle said, spitting on the floor.

"Because you're an asset." Terry said. "We need you if we want any chance of getting are shit back. We don't know where are guns are, or where there being kept or who has them, but you do."

Terry looked at Callum. "You ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." Callum said.

They walked out of the room. Leo was up front, ready to warn them if someone was coming. Terry had taken Kyle's pistol and him and Callum guarded him, both guns pointed at the side of his chest. Fionn lagged a little behind, looking weak and miserable. They hadn't bothered taking Joanna with them. She didn't look like she was going anywhere, anytime soon.

They followed Kyle's directions in silence, not talking much in case someone heard them.

"What the fuck happened here?" Callum whispered as they walked through a hallway, with blood splattered all over the walls and floor.

"Some kid went mad a few days ago." Kyle grinned, clearly enjoying telling the story. "Shot five kids. Claimed he was doing it for God. Then he shoved the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger."

Kyle put his fingers in the shape of gun, put it in his mouth and made a 'pow' noise.

"Fuckin hell." Terry said. "I'm so glad we didn't come here."

"Left here." Kyle said, nodding his head towards a staircase. They turned left at the top of the staircase. Surprisingly, they hadn't run into any kids in these halls, even though it was about eight o clock.

"Your guns and weapons are in here." Kyle said, looking at a solid wooden door.

Callum opened the door. He noticed all the weapons were piled up on a desk in the corner. But at the desk in the middle sat a tall, skinny fourteen year old with short, messy black hair. He was leaning back in his chair, feet up on the desk, staring at a Playboy magazine.

When he noticed the other kids, he frantically flung the magazine behind the chair before standing up. He looked like he was gonna say something but he must've too nervous, seeing his best fighter at gunpoint.

Callum pointed his gun at the other kid. Terry handed his gun to Leo, who kept it pointed at Kyle and Terry walked over to the desk in the corner. He picked up his double barrel shotgun and opened the barrel, seeing if it was loaded. It was. He also found his back pack, which contained some ammo and whatever they'd found when scavenging and hung it over his shoulder.

"We can't take all this stuff now." Terry said, looking at Callum. "I'll go down with Leo and look for the others, you and Fionn can stay up here and guard Kyle and the other lad."

"I have a name, you know." The kid said.

"Yeah and I obviously don't fucking know it." Terry snapped back. Terry gestured for Leo to follow him and they walked out of the room.

"Any sudden moves and I will shoot." Callum said, keeping his gun pointed at them.

"Funny, isn't it Mark, that if we had just killed them there, we wouldn't be at gun point now." Kyle said smuggly.

"Shut up, Kyle." Mark said. "First of all, I didn't even want to capture them. I want to leave them alone but you had to take your crew, show your fucking dominance and beat the shit out of them. Second of all, I don't know why your giving out to me, because you do owe me your life. I could have easily left you and Joanna out on the street for the grownups to pick you apart."

"Even if you hadn't let us in," Kyle said. "We could've easily ran off to Hotel Kilkenny, its only a five minute walk."

"You would've been picked off by the hundreds off grownups that were fleeing from the north side, because of the fire." Mark said.

"I would've rathered be picked off by the grownups then spend another minute next to your ugly fucking face." Kyle said.

"Kyle, you've been nothing but a retard for the three weeks you've been here." Mark said. "You've gotten two of out best fighters killed, you let grownups into the building three times, you made the whole situation with the kids from Paulstown so much worse, you destroyed a weeks worth of food and you even told the Greg kid, who was already an emotional train wreck, to go cause another fucking school shooting."

"I didn't tell him to do anything he wasn't already thinking of doing." Kyle said.

"I knew that kid Greg." Mark said. "If you hadn't put that idea into his head, he wouldn't have done anything. He killed five kids and injured three more. And you made him do that. If we both get out of here alive I'm kicking you out of here. You can fend for yourself."

"Fuck you, Mark, you dirty poof." Kyle said, angrily. He walked over to the window, opened it and jumped out, falling one storey, to the grass below.

As Mark and Callum watched him walked through a small patch of grass at the front of the school, towards the main gate, Kyle looked at them and extended both middle figures.

"Bitch." He shouted.

"He's the fuckin emotional train wreck." Callum said.

47.

Terry figured the kids from his group would be in the classrooms near the one he'd ended up in. That's what he hoped.

He walked down the hallway with Leo. It was deathly quiet. And it was dark. The sun had set a couple of minutes ago and there was very little natraul light.

Terry and Leo didn't speak, because of the language barrier, but that was a good thing, so they could listen out for other kids as they walked.

They made it back to the room they'd originally been. Their room had been at the end of the hallway and as they walked to the next one, they heard someone groan in pain.

"Help" The person moaned. They walked back into their classroom and found Joanna, still lying where they'd left her. She had a massive gash on the side of her head and there was pool of blood surrounding her head.

She looked at Terry and then Leo.

"You bastard." She said, weakly, to Leo.

"Do you want to come back with us to the castle?" Terry asked, as he helped her sit up.

"Fuck the castle." Joanna said. "I'm staying here after what that little cunt did to me."

"Alright, be that way." Terry said, pushing her back to the ground.

"C'mon, let's go." He told Leo. Leo didn't understand what he said, but he saw Terry was leaving the classroom and followed him.

Terry and Leo walked to the next door, thirty feet away from them. Terry tried the handle. Locked.

"Shit." He said to himself. He forgot to get the keys of Kyle. Terry thought for a second, before aiming his shotgun at the door handle and pulling the trigger.

The deafening blast of the shotgun rang through the hallway. There was now a hole, almost a foot wide and edged with splinters where the door handle had been.

Terry pushed open the door of the barely lit room and stepped in, but as he did he was bundled to the ground.

"Not so big now, are you Kyle, you little shit." Terry heard one of his group, Richard, say.

"Chill the fuck out, Richard, its me, Terry." Terry said quickly.

"Oh, bollocks." Richard said, hastily getting of Terry. "Sorry, man. 'you OK?"

"Don't worry, I'm fine. " Terry smiled as he stood up, brushed himself off and reloaded his shotgun. "Who else is in here?"

"David and Bethany." Richard said. "We were gonna try knock Kyle unconscious, take his keys and get out."

"That's what we did." Terry said. "But I forgot to take the keys of Kyle."

"Was it just you and Leo?" Richard asked.

"Nah," Terry shook his head. "Callum and Fionn were with us as well, but their guarding Kyle and the kid in charge. It's where he's keeping all our weapons."

"Endends-tu cela?" Leo asked, forgetting that no one spoke French.

"English, kid." David said.

Leo gestured for everyone to shut up. When they did, they heard the sounds of footsteps and someone shouting "I think it was from there."

"Ah, fuck!" Richard said. "More bloody kids."

"Should we fight them?" Bethany asked.

"No." David said. "I'm not killing another kid."

"Well, we only have one option." Terry said, solemnly. He dashed to one of the massive windows at the side of the class and rammed the butt of his shotgun into it. It smashed Into a million.

"What the fuck was that!?" He heard one of the CBS kids shouted.

"Let's blow this joint." Terry said jokingly in a surfur dude accent, before climbing out the window. Everyone followed.

"We shouldn't have left." Bethany said, panicky, as they jogged. "They wouldn't kill us, like the grownups will out here."

"It's better that we left, probably be a bit safer." Terry said. "Especially after they see what Leo did to Joanna."

"What did he do?" Bethany asked curiously.

"He rugby tackled her, she smacked her head against a counter and her head is oozing blood and she probably has a cuncusion, provided she doesn't die from blood loss."

"Shit." Bethany said.

"What about Callum and Fionn?" David asked.

"We can't go back and get them." Terry says. "It'd be too risky. There probably safer in there anyway."

"But you said we'd be safer out here." Bathany said.

"Yeah, Bethany, I don't fucking now." Terry said. "I'm not god."

They jogged out the front gate of the school. They weren't that worried about being seen because it was night, so the slowed to a walk as soon as they were out of sight.

Remnats of the big battle earlier that day were scattered around the place. Bodies of grownups and bullet shells.

They were pretty confident as they strolled down the street but that confidence quickly left, leaving fear in its wake. A small group of grownups lay ahead. However they were quickly dealt with. David might have only been armed with some safety scissors he stole from the classroom, but he was gods gift at fighting. He delt with four of the five grownups in no time, and Terry simply shot the fifth one. They quickly learned that shooting was a bad idea.

The loud noise atrackted more grownups. More were starting to come out of hiding places. House, cars, plain sight.

"Fuck, Fuck, Fuck." Richard said, who was armed with nothing.

"We gotta run, sadly." Terry said. "I'm not fit enough to run that far."

"Same." Richard and Bethany both said.

They dodged and weeved for almost half and hour, achieving very little progress, as they kept on having to change course because there was to many grownups on certain streets. They were on the ring road now, a smallish circular moterway that surrounded about two thirds of kilkenny city. They were at the very south of it. To there right was a long building, three storeys tall, with a massive car park outside.

"Woodys D.I.Y." Terry said, out of breath

"What?" Richard said.

"Woodys D.I.Y." Terry said again. "It's a construction and garden center. If it hasn't been looted, they'll be axes, hammers and all sorts in there. Then after you get tooled up, we can stay at my house for the night. All we have to do the get there is just hop the fence at the other side of the ring road and go through a couple of bushes."

"Good idea." Richard said. They walked through the abandoned car park, before reaching the entrance. The sliding doors on the store had been left opened.

"There'll probably be grownups in here." David said. "So we'll do a quick in and out. Don't split up."

They walked in, Terry and Leo with their guns aimed and ready. Most of the shop had been looted, but not everything. Bethany found a flat head screwdriver to use and Richard got lucky and discovered a small sledgehammer lying hidden under the shelving. David stated that he like to fight dirty and picked up a white and red striped lawn chair.

Everything seemed fine, but as they went to leave, several grownups moved in from there hiding place and blocked the front entrance, and there only exit.

David was more than thrilled about this, as he got to try out his new weapon. He smashed the edge of the lawn chair against a father's head. It fell over, not dead but hurt. He smashed it into the knee of the second one as Richard smacked the third one with his small sledgehammer. Terry shoved the butt of his shot gun into the fourth grownups head. Leo shot the fifth one. Bethany simply watched, shocked. She clearly wasnt used to fighting, or being outside in this new world, so David had to take out the sixth one himself.

"I reckon if I stick a couple of nails on the edge of this it would be lethal." David said, grinning madly.

"You're fuckin mad man." Terry grinned. "It's good to have you on our side."

They ran out of the building, across the derelict car park, across the ring road and hopped the fence. After going through twenty feet of thick bushes, they reached the street Terry once called home. Apart from one burned out car, the street looked lovely. There were standing on a small field. There was a goal post on the left of it. The houses on this street were very nice. Each one was three storeys tall, with a separate extension coming out of each one for the kitchen.

"This place looks lovely." David said , taking it all in.

"The company that built these house went bankrupt a dozen years ago" Terry said.

"Why?" Richard asked.

"Shit if I know." Terry said. "But the of the house is pretty shit. If I'm in my bedroom, I can see if the light is on in the other room beside me by looking under the walls."

Richard and David laughed.

"Makes sense." Bethany said, putting on a bitch tone. "With you listening to music on a tape recorder and wearing a ten year old parka, you seemed too poor to have a proper house."

"Well, I'm sorry, Bethany, that my house isn't up to spec for a basic white bitch like yourself." Terry said. "I bet you used to go to Starbucks everyday and get your rich dad to buy you a double-mocha-frappa- lappa-cappachino with extra froth, de caf and soya milk."

Richard and David laughed again. Leo was blank faced, confused at why everyone was laughing, but he didn't care enough to try and ask what was said.

They walked on another fourty feet until they reached Terry's house. The driveway was made of stone slabs, the garden was only slightly overgrown and the house was in very nice contrition, for now.

" Nice wheels." David laughed, looking at an old red go-kart lying in the back of the drive way.

"Jaysus, she's fair nice, so she tis." Terry said jokingly putting on a thick Irish accent. "She'd get you from A to B nó problem at all."

David laughed again. Terry bent down, moved a blue pot and took a spare key from under it. He opened the door and let everyone inside. There nightmarish ordeal was over, at least for now.

48.

Richard woke to the sound of banging. Metal hitting metal. He looked around, confused for a dozen seconds. He didn't have a clue where he was. He was in a bare-ish room. He was lying on a double bed that was covered in white sheets. There was also a white bedside table, a small wardrobe and a dart board in here.

He eventually remembered where he was. He was in the guest room in Terry's house. They came here last night, after escaping CBS.

Richard got up and looked out the window. It was a gray and dreary day today. The road was wet from rain last night and the clouds hung low in the sky.

He got dressed, walked down stairs and into the kitchen. Terry was sitting at the table, reading an old newspaper.

"Good morning." He said to Richard.

"Mornin'" Richard said. "Is there anything to eat for breakfeast?"

"I'm gonna wait till everyone gets up, then I'm cook some noodles." Terry said. "It's all that's left in the house."

There was more loud banging again.

"What is that?" Richard asked groggily.

"David's fixing up his chair." Terry said. "He's putting nails in it."

"His chairs gonna fuckin lethal." Richard said.

After everyone woke up, Terry made noodles for everyone. They left half an hour later.

The streets were calmer now. There was still the occasional grownups here and there, but they either ran away or had their head caved in by David and his chair, which now had six nails sticking out of one of the foldable legs. They walked for another twenty minutes before reaching the castle.

"Holy shit." A girl called Alexandra said. A few the kids like Callum and David new her from the battle a few weeks ago. She had been in a mini van, trying to help. She pulled a wakie takie up to her mouth.

"James... Yeah we got five... Richard, Terry, Leo, Bethany and David... Yeah hold on, they'll be with you in a minute."

Alexandra jumped down from the wall and opened the gate.

"What the fuck happened?" She asked. "Where's everyone else?"

"Still in CBS, i assume." David said, swinging his chair from left to right.

"CBS?" she asked. "Why were ye in CBS?"

"ambushed." Terry said.

Alexandra nodded, before closing the gate. "James wants to talk with you."

The five of them walked through the castle to James's office. It was a little haunting walking through the empty hallways. They eventually got to James's office and walked in. His office had much more decoration now. James had hung up a couple of paintings and brought in a bookshelf, which contained a lot of books about war. The man himself was sitting at the old wooden desk, reading a book about the Vietnam War.

"What happened?" James asked, sounding worried and relieved at the same time as he put the book down.

"We we're ambushed." Richard said, as they all stood around awkwardly.

"How?" James said. "There was twenty four of you."

"Yeah, I know." Richard said. "But there was around twenty of them, the kids from CBS, and we were all focusing on Fionn, who was bitten in a big fight we had just had with grownups."

"Was anyone killed?" James asked.

"As far as we know, no one was killed." Terry said. "But Fionn is in a really bad state."

"I see." James said, nodding slowly. "So what exactly happened?"

"We were all crowded around Fionn," Terry said. "When they, probably, came out of CBS and attacked. A few people were stabbed and cut." He pointed at the scar under his chin. "A few people like Callum and Richard were knocked unconscious, the rest of us were put in handcuffs and they brought us inside. They shoved around four of us into each classroom."

James thought for a couple of seconds.

"Can you take me to CBS?" James asked.

"I could take you in the BMW." Terry said. "But why?"

"Why what?" James asked dumbly.

"Why do you want to go there?" Terry asked.

"I could probably set up a little alliance with whoevers in charge." James said. "It's good to have other people on our side."

"I don't think the guy in charge would be happy with you barging in demanding an alliance." Terry said. "But I'll take you anyway."

They walked out the door, but as they walked, Bethany turned the other direction.

"Where you going?" David asked.

"I'm not going back there." Bethany said. "I'm gonna find my girlfriends."

"Yeah, that's fine." David shrugged. "You were a useless fighter anyway."

They walked to the car, which was halfway across the castle grounds, in the garage. Though old, the car was incredibly luxurious. The seats were made of cream leather. The doors were lined with more cream leather and wood, as was the dashboard. The leather was the soft, expensive kind, not the cheap kind you'd find in lesser luxury cars.

"Lush." David said, as he climbed into the front passenger seat and turned on the heated seat.

"I know." Terry grinned as he slid into the drivers seat. "This is the kinda thing you need in a zombie apocalypse."

After the ten minute car ride through the abandoned city, they reached CBS. The gates were closed, but not locked, so Richard hopped out and opened them and Terry drove the car inside.

As James got out of the back seat, he'd really wished he'd brought his knife. He wouldnt be happy if random kids from another group came into his place and he doubted they would be either.

The school was two storeys tall, made out of red bricks and had the name 'CBS' written in big white letters. The kids walked through the main doors.

"Anyone Home?" David shouted as they looked around the main hallway.

"Shut the fuck up, David." James said.

"What?" David said, dumbly. "Why?"

"We've lost the element of surprise." James said.

"Why do you need the element of surprise?" David asked. "I thought you were forming an alliance or some shit?"

"Yeah, but now that they know where they'll kick us out." James said.

"If they try kick us out I'll bash there heads in." David said, tapping his lawn chair, hanging from his belt.

As they walked on a couple of kids came up to them.

"Who the fuck are you?" The first kid demanded, putting on an "I'm so Hardy" voice. (Hardy= Irish slang for Someone who thinks there so cool and is incredibly cocky)

"We come from the Kilkenny castle." James said. "We want to talk with whoevers in charge."

"Yeah, that ain't happening." The kid grinned. "So you'd better skidaddle the fuck out of here before I make you regret ever coming here."

"If you don't want to co-operate, then I'll gladly use force." Jamee said, calmly.

"You here that, Nev." The kid said, looking at the smaller, weeker kid beside him. "This ginger here has balls."

James looked at David and nodded. David shoved the big kid up against the lockers and put the part of his chair with the nails in it against the kids neck.

"I have no problem with letting David shove his chair through your neck." James smiled. "Doesn't bother me."

"Nev, are you gonna fuckin help me or not?!" The kid shouted.

"What can I do?" Nev said, nervously twirling his knife in his hand. "That's one's got a pistol pointed at me."

"I want you to give me your weapon." James said.

"No." The kid said.

David edged the chair closer to the kids neck, so the nails were touching the kids skin.

"Give me your weapon." James said again.

The kid reluctantly handed over his hammer.

"Nice." James said, as David brought his chair away from the kids neck. "Terry, you know where the guys office is, don't you?"

"Yeah." Terry said. They started to follow Terry.

The big kid was pissed that these random kids came in, over powered him with a chair and had his hammer taken away. He grabbed Nev's knife and ran up to them. He made an attmept to stab Richard, the closest person to him, but Richard heard him running, turned around and dodged most of the knife. It grazed his shoulder, leaving a long cut there. David quickly turned around and swung his chair into the belly of the kid. The kid made an 'oof' sound as the air was taken out of him. He doubled over and fell the the floor.

"Holy shit." Nev said, as he rushed over to the kid. He lifted up the kids t shirt to inspect the wound. Blood gushed out of the five holes in his stomach.

"Retard." James said, shaking his head as he looked at the kid moaning in pain.

They left the kid there and walked on, as Richard held his hand over his wound to try stop the bleeding. Terry led them up a flight of stairs and down another hallway, to Marks office. Terry opened the door and walked. He was surprised to find Callum and Fionn, tied up with rope, gagged and lying on the floor.

"What the fuck happened?" Terry asked as knelt down beside Callum and took the gag, a scrunched up rag, out of his mouth.

"They fucking stormed in, overpowered us and tied us up." Callum said angrily. "Then Mark told them to take all the guns and they left.

"Shit." Terry said, as he untied Callum.

"Where do you think there gone now?" David asked, as he untied Fionn, who was even paler than ever, and broke into a coughing fit when he tried to move.

"There probably waiting for us to come back for our friends and ambush us there, or they've gone to the castle looking for us." Terry said.

"Well, what do we do?" Richard asked, as he took of his T shirt and rapped it around his bloody shoulder.

"I don't know." James said, as he sat down in the brown leather chair behind the wooden tesk and rested his head on his hand. "I don't know."

What should he do, he though. James had never in his life thought he'd be in a situation like this. What was he supposed to do. Apart from Terry's shotgun,the pistol Leo stole, and the weapons he, Richard and David had taken, they had nothing. And they were against God knows how many other kids, armed with Revolvers, assault rifles, shotguns, pistols, knifes, hammers, hatchets and other lethal weapons. To make matters even worse, most of his group was still imprisoned, somewhere in the school. The kid that was impaled by David's chair might know where the rest of them are, provided he hadn't died.

"We should ask the guy David impaled." James said.

"Who?" Callum asked.

"David impaled some kid who attacked us with his chair." James said.

"Wait, David's using a fucking chair?!" Callum laughed, looking at David and then the chair hanging be his side.

"Yeah." David said, enthusiasticly. "It's fuckin lit."

"Anyway," James said. "We should go ask the kid."

"Na, man." Fionn said, weekly and shakily. He sat against the wall, pale skinned and eyes wide. "I can't go anywhere."

"C'mon." Callum said, hoisting an arm around Fionn and lifting him up.

"Holy shit." David said suddenly, rushing to the window. "It's the bloody cavalry."

James stood up and stared out the window.

"Oh for fucks sake." He sighed. The window had a clear view of the front gate, and coming through it was a massive group of kids, thirty or fourty strong.

"I think they have some beef with Mark and the gang, as well." Terry said.

"Alright, let's see if we can find our group," James said. "Then we'll hurry the fuck outta here."

They rushed out of the room, though they couldn't go to fast because they had to carry Fionn. They rushed down the hallway, down the stairs, and down another hallway.

"I reckon they'll be around where we were held." Richard said, as they walked, cautiously looking around.

"Makes sense." Terry nodded in return. They soon reached the room where Callum, Terry, Leo and Fionn had been held.

"Joannas been moved." Terry said, looking at a massive pool of blood near the door, that lacked the body that once occupied it.

They walked on another two dozen meters, walking past the room Richard, David and Bethany were held, to the next room. Terry aimed his shotgun at the door handle and pulled the trigger. A massive hole now lay where the door handle once stood and a deffening bang rang through the hallway.

"Shit, they have guns." They heard a kid in the distance shout.

"There on to us." James said. He pushed open the door and they walked in to find four kids, who were in the middle of a game of cards, staring at them in shock. Luckily, they were some of theirs. Harry, Simon, Adrianna and Danny.

However there was no time to exchange 'hi' s' and 'What happend's' because they could already here footsteps running down the hallway towards them.

Terry stuck his shotgun out the doorway and fired randomly into the wall. He heard all the footsteps come to a stop as soon as he shot.

"This is my Boomstick." Terry said loudly, referencing the Army of Darkness movie. "Its a 12 gauge, double barreled Remington, S marts top of the line, probably. Either way, I'm not afraid to use it to blow your heads off, so I recommend backing away."

Terry looked back at the kids. "I've held them off for about a minute, now let's go."

Richard swung a chair at one of the windows. A smile came across his face as it smashed into a million piece.

Richard leapt out the ground floor window first. He was only out there two seconds before he was rugby tackled by a burly kid with short ginger hair.

The ginger haired kid held Richard down as another kid came over and kicked Richard viciously in the ribs.

"CBS scum." He shouted, kicking him again.

Suddenly there was a loud bang. Louder than anything the kid had ever heard. The kid tried to re gain his senses as his ear rung, but before he new, a long haired kid had jumped through the window and was pointing a double barreled shotgun at his chest. Another kid came out, pointing a pistol at the ginger kid.

"Decends Richard ou tú mourras." Leo shouted at the ginger kid. The kid just stared at Leo, shocked and confused.

"Um... Off Richard... no die." Leo said in his broken English. The ginger kid got off Richard, stood up and raised his hands.

"Who are you guys?" Terry asked, keeping his shotgun at the kids chest.

"You know fuckin well who we are, you sick little shit." The kid shouted back.

"Listen, mate, we're not from here." Terry said.

"How dumb do you think I am?!" the kid said back.

"Dumb enough to pick a fight with the wrong fucking group of kids." Terry said back.

"You CBS kids are nothin'." The kid sneered. "Your bunch of pussies."

"We're not from CBS, you retard." Callum shouted as him and Danny lifted Fionn ouout the window. "We're from Kilkenny Castle."

"What?" The kid said weekly. "No your not."

"Yeah. You see him?" Callum pointed at James, who was tying his shoelaces. "He's the kid in charge."

"If you could bring us to whoever in charge of your group, I'd be willing to talk to him about having an alliance, or a barter system or something."

"I guess he'd be happy with that." The kid said. "I'll take you to him, but can you tell him to stop pointing that shotgun at me."

"Are you gonna attack us?" James asked.

"No, I'm not stupid." The kid.

"Alright." James said. James trusted him. In this new world, trust was an important thing. Terry lowered his shotgun.

The kid started to lead them to the front gate.

"Whats your beef with CBS?" James asked.

"A group of about fifteen of them came to us three days ago." The kid said. "They we're asking if we could team up with them. So their leader and ours went and discussed things. But discussions broke down and their leader got pissed. They left but they came back three hours later, with about thirty or fourty kids. They broke in and thrashed the place, breaking windows, our defences, our food and they all turned on us, as well. The beat up most of us and some of them even raped some of ours. And just to top it off, just before they left they set our place on fire."

" Fucking hell." James said.

" What do you have against them?" The kid asked.

"I sent a group of twenty four out scavenging but they ambushed them and took them hostage." James said. "They took all our weapons as well. A few of them escaped but the rest are still stuck in there."

They reached the front courtyard of the school. A couple of kids from the other group sat around, keeping guard. The kid lead them to a medium height kid with long sandy brown hair, sitting on the hood of the BMW.

"Finn, are these some of them?" The guy in charge asked.

"No." Finn said. "These are some kids from kilkenny Castle who the CBS bastards also fucked with."

"I see." The guy in charge said. "Which of you is in charge."

James nodded.

"What's your name?" The guy in charge asked.

"James." James replied. "You?"

"I'm locally known as The leader back where I'm from."

"Where are you from?" James asked.

"Is that a shotgun?" The leader asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Yeah." Terry said, smugly. "12 gauge, remington."

James found the change of subject a bit weird but he didn't think much of it.

"Can I hold it?" The leader asked. Terry was reluctant but Leo still had his gun ready so he handed it over.

"Nice." The leader said, turning it over in his hands. He pointed it at the side mirror of the BMW and fired.

"Hey, man, that's our car." James said.

"Oh, sorry." The leader grinded, handing the shotgun back to Terry.

At this moment, a kid came running out of the building. "There all gone." The kid said.

"What?" the leader said.

"Apart from some kids that's were locked up, claiming that there from kilkenny Castle, and two kids, one who's been stabbed, there all gone. There isn't a trace of them."

"Fuck." The leader said.

49.

Callum walked to the car and furiously thumped his hand on the roof of it.

"Terry, C'mon." Callum said. "The bastards need to pay. Are you with me or not?"

Callum was already pissed at the CBS kids, but hearing that beat and raped other kids made him more pissed at them.

"With you all the way." Terry said, as he pulled the car keys out of his pocket. He unlocked and climbed in, as did Callum.

"Anyone else wanna come?" Callum asked.

Finn opened the back door and climbed in.

"Nice." Callum said, as he leant between the two back seats and gave Finn a fist bump.

"Wait, hold on a second" The leader said as he lept of the hood of the BMW. "Finn, can we talk for a second."

Finn climbed out and they rushed off to the far side of the car park. They returned a minute later and Finn climbed into the backseat.

"Anyone else?" Callum asked.

"Fuck it." Adrianna shrugged. She climbed into the back of the car, beside Finn.

James also joined, grinning as he slipped into the plush, leather, rear seats of the car, beside Adrianna and Finn.

Terry started the car and James rolled down his window.

" David." James said. "Your in charge. Get our guys out of CBS and bring them safely back to the castle."

"No problem boss." David said enthusiasticly.

Terry dabbed the accelerator and edged the car to the gate. He got out, opened the gate, got back in and drove out. As soon as he was on the road he shoved his foot hard on the accelerator. The car roared as he did this.

Callum stared out the window as they drove. "What's the plan?"

"What?" Terry asked. He hadn't been listening.

"When we see the guys from CBS, with our guns, what do we do then?" Callum said as he scratched his short hair.

"Dunno." Terry said. "I thought you had a plan."

"No." Callum said. "I don't know why I wanted to go."

"Was it like a spur of the moment kind of thing?" Terry asked.

"Yeah." Callum said.

"If you want, we could just park somewhere." Terry said. "I have a deck of cards in the glove box, we could play Crazy Eights or something for a bit, then go back to the castle and say we couldn't find them."

"What, no!" Finn suddenly said. "You can't just give up. Four of my group were killed by them and a few others raped. We can't just let them go."

"Listen mate," Callum said, turning around in his seat to look at Finn. "I hate them almost as much as you. They whacked the shit out of some of us and stole our guns but even if we do find them, what chance do we stand. There armed. Apart from Terry's shotgun, we're not."

"They can't have that much guns." Finn said.

"They have my two assault rifles, Harry's assault rifle, Harry's sub machine gun, both of Jessica's pistols, Terry's revolver-"

"I gave that to Liza." Terry corrected.

"Liza's revolver." Callum continued. "Anna's shotgun, Anna's revolver and Ryan's rifle. Ten guns. Ten. Against a twenty two year old BMW and a Remmington double barreled shotgun. If we find them, we'll be fucked."

"We've gotta at least try." Finn said.

"You know," James said. "We could use this time now to drive around and see what other groups there are."

"Not a terrible idea." Callum said. "I thinks there's one in the Lorreto secondary school."

"I went there." Adrianna said from the backseat. "All the teachers there were pricks."

"My cousin Millie went there, you know her?" Terry's asked.

"Millie Donavan?" Adrianna asked.

"Yeah." Terry nodded as he swerved around a couple of grownups.

"She was sound, but we only had a couple of classes together so I didnt know her that well." Adrianna said.

Terry stopped the car outside the Lorreto secondary school. The fence surrounding it had been lined with barbed wire, and most of the windows were covered with plywood sheets. A single grownup stood there, hitting its fisted against the metal fence, making a rubbish attempt to get in. As they got out of the car, the grownup drew its attention to the kids. It walked closer, expecting and easy meal, but Terry swiftly lifted up his shotgun and fired a shot at its head. The grownup collapsed as blood rushed out of a gaping hole in its head.

"You sure anyone's still here?" James asked. "Looks pretty deserted to me."

"We'll find out in a second." Adrianna said. "They wouldn't ignore the shot, they'd want to see who shot it."

After ten seconds of standing in silence by the front gate, they heard a door open.

A girl of about thirteen walked down the little path towards them. She had short black hair and soft green eyes.

"Yes?" She asked, through the gate.

"We don't really want anything, we were just wondering how many groups there are in kilkenny and where." Callum said.

"Also, have you seen a group from CBS walk by recently." Finn said. "They armed with loads of guns, probably led by a tall, skinny kid with short black hair."

"Finn, drop it." Callum said. "There gone."

"We've seen them." The girl said.

"What?!" Callum said in disbalief.

"Yeah, there in with us." The girl said. "They were attacked by a big group of grownups. I think half of them were killed."

"That's amazing." Finn smiled.

"That's a horrible thing to say." The girl said, shocked.

"No it isn't." Finn said. "They burned down my groups base, killed four of my group and raped a few of our group."

"Go away, they did not." The girl said, dismissively.

"No they did." Finn said. "Swear on my life."

"And the guns they have were ours before the stole them." Callum added.

"Jesus." The girl said. "They sound terrible."

"So, can we come in?" Fionn asked.

"Yeah." The girl said, as she unlocked the gates and let them in.

"But if I find out you're lying you won't make it out alive."

"Sure." Terry said, laughing, patting his shotgun.

The girl took offence to this. She swiftly pulled her knife out of her scabbard and started quickly shoving Terry to the fence, knife against his neck. Terry, however, countered this. He used her forward momentum against her and he did a very simple judo throw on her, throwing her to the ground. She quickly made an attempt to get but before she could go anywhere, Terry already had his shotgun pointed at her face. She stared at him, stunned.

"Fuck, Terry, I didn't know you did Judo." Callum said.

"I don't really." Terry said. "My grandad did teach me a few moves though."

"Is this the same grandad who fought in Nam?" Callum asked.

"Yeah." Terry smiled, remembering all the war story's he'd been told. Then something hit him like a bullet. He would never see his grandad again. He had already know this but he never had never really thought about it. He tried not to. It was sometimes best not to get caught up in the past.

Terry stopped pointing his shotgun at the girls head and extended a hand to help her up. She took it, but not happily.

"Sorry." He said as he pulled her up. The girl tutted as she led them into the school.

She led them through a derelict hallway, lined with old lockers, into an auditoriom.

It was a mess in there. Around fifteen kids lay in make shift stretchers, each with verying degrees of injuries.

"Theres Mark." Callum said, pointing at the black haired kid, who sat in his make shift stretcher, staring at his leg, which was covered in bandeges.

"Hey Mark." Callum said when they walked up to him. "What happened to your leg?"

"I was bitten." He said shakily. "Three times."

"Good, you deserved it." Callum said.

"We had to get away." Mark said. "Kyle's not with us anymore. He'd probably find another group, then he'd come back here with an army, be pissed at me because I said I kick him out, then attack, then we wouldn't-."

Mark stopped talking suddenly and started at Finn.

"What the fuck do you want?" Mark said sourly to him.

"What?" Finn asked.

"Have you come to finish us off?" Mark said again.

"I don't even know who you are." Finn said, uncovinsingly.

"I'm not retarded." Marks said. "I know who you are, what your group did. Four of mine dead. Good people."

"It was an accident." Finn said. "We thought you were from Thomastown. Plus, you destroyed half out base."

"First of all," Mark said. "Accident my fucking arse. Thomastown is empty, no one lives there. Second of all, I didn't want to destroy half your base. That was Kyle's idea while me and Cormac, or the leader as you know him, were talking. Kyle's a fucking emotional train wreck, and he's gone now."

"I fell like theres a bit of story were missing here." Terry said.

" Yeah." Finn said. "Marks group are dickheads."

"Dont listen to him. I'll tell you the whole story. It's about a week ago." Mark explained. "I send five kids to Paulstown in hope of looting the Applegreen. I though it would be a safe place to loot, as I assumed there was little grownups there. However, some kids from a base, made up of the whole of Paulstown, spotted them. They captured my little group and held them in there base, asking for info about who ran CBS, how much food was there, how much kids and other info. When they were done, they stole my groups weapons, supplies and even there coats, leaving them to fend for themselves with nothing."

" You can't prove this is real." Finn said. "None them are alive so you can't prove shit."

"That's were your wrong, kiddo." Mark said. "Against all the odds, the smallest and weediest of them all, Nev his name was, somehow made it back to CBS and told us the whole story. So I decided to go down there with a bunch of my guys, and talk this out. While I'm talking with Cormac, or the leader or whatever, Kyle has the idea to start thrashing the place. He then encourages others in my group to do the same and most do. So basically, Kyle and his squad destroy windows, there farms and there food. After I find out what happens, I get the fuck out, along with everyone else. And now Finns here, probably a spy, trying to find out more about us, or something."

"I actually came with my group for revenge." Finn said. He suddenly grabbed Terry's shotgun and shoved it into Marks face. "Four dead and several raped."

"Holy shit we didnt kill or rape anyone!" Mark said loudly, raising his hands. "I don't have a fucking clue what Kyle did but I didn't do any of that."

"Finn, give me my gun back." Terry said firmly.

Finn pointed it at him. "Shut up."

"Shoot me." Terry said, stepping closer. "Shoot me pussy."

They had now grabbed the attention of the entire audotorium.

"Don't make me." Finn said.

"Bet you won't." Terry said looking him dead in the eyes.

Finn pulled the trigger. Nothing happened, it just clicked.

"Wha?" He mumbled, confused. Terry pulled the gun out of Finns grasp and pointed it a Finn.

"You forgot the safety." Terry said, clicking the safety off.

"Fuck." Finn said.

"Mark, do you know where our guns are?" Callum asked.

"I think most of them are still at the site." Mark said.

"Site?" Callum asked.

"The place where the battle happened." Mark replied.

"Where was that?" Callum asked.

"So you really just care about the guns?" Mark asked. "You dont care about the Paulstown group and all there bullshit."

"No, I really dont care." Callum said, kneeling down to Marks level. "I just want to be safe. That's all I care about."

"Alright well," Mark said. "It's just up the road."

"Cool." Callum said, standing up. "It was nice chatting but we're gonna be off now."

"What are you gonna do with that bollocks?" Mark asked, pointing at Finn.

"We'll figure something out." Adrianna said as the walked away.

They walked through the derelict hallway, towards the doors out, Terry's gun still pointed at Finn.

"What a day." Terry sighed as he shoved his hand in his jean pocket, looking for his gum.

"There's so much much "beef" going on between these groups it's just fucking retarded." Adrianna said. "And we probably wouldn't be in this cluster fuck if you just stopped going on about alliance this and peace treaty that."

James shrugged. "How was I supossed to know this would happen?"

"Thats not really important now though." Callum said. "We've gotta figure out what to do with him."

Callum pointed at Finn.

"We can't kill him." Terry said, as he unlocked the BMW.

"It doesn't matter." Finn said as he stared to stroll down the road, hands in his pockets.

"Should we stop him?" Callum asked.

"Na." James said. "Leave him. He's not worth it."

50.

After David had freed everyone, he sent them out to loot CBS. He sent a most of the kids in and told the rest to guard the gate and make sure no grownups got in.

"David, come here, look at this." Simon shouted, staring into a small room in CBS. David and a few more kids rushed over to take a look.

It was stocked with boxes, all of which were labeled. Most were labaled 'food' but a few more read 'Meds', 'clothes' and 'weapons' on the side of them.

"They might be empty." Liza said, walking into the room to check.

Simon opened one of them looked inside. "Nope. This one's stocked to the brim."

"We'll have to check them all." Jessica said.

"Oh fuck." Shane sighed. "Do I have to?"

"Yeah, you fucking have to." Jessica said. She talked to Shane a couple of times over the last month and she really didn't like him. He was very lazy and was an asshole most of the time.

They spent the next couple of minutes looking through them all. Half of them were empty.

Liza opened another one, near the end of the pile and burst out laughing when she what was inside.

"What is it?" Jessica asked.

Liza pulled out a see through plastic bag, filled with crystallised meth.

"The whole box is filled with it."

"Is that real?" Simon said, walking over and inspecting the back.

"Probably," Liza said. "I don't think they'd keep fake meth here."

"True." Simon said.

"So, is the whole box full of it?" Jessica asked.

"Yeah." Liza sliding the box across towards her.

"We could probably sell this to other groups in exchange for food and tools." Jessica suggested.

"We could." David said. "There's probably a good few crackheads here in kilkenny."

"Or we could drive up to Dublin and sell it there." Simon said. "More people there."

"How much would we sell it for?" David asked.

"The average street value of meth back in the day was forty euro for a gram." Simon said, thinking. "Cosidering the price for canned food back in the day, we could probably get about 10 to 20 cans of food for a gram."

"How'd you know how much meth is?" Jessica asked.

"My older cousin used to use it all the time." Simon said.

"If we sold all that for the amount of food Simon says it's worth we'll have to survive the entire apocalypse." Liza said.

David checked in another box. "There's more. This ones full of pills."

They checked the rest of the box's. Four more were filled to the brim with drugs.

"We'll make a fucking mint of all this." David said.

"Who would've taught drug dealing would be so profitable." Simon said.


	11. 51-55

51.

6 days later.

David threw his backpack into the back of the BMW and closed the tailgate. Him, Jessica, Adrianna, Terry and Aaron were leaving for Dublin, where the planned to sell the drugs they found in CBS in exchange for food or supplies.

A few kids were crowded around, saying there goodbyes. Aaron was with his boys, his friends, Richard and Clyde. They were laughing, joking around, but he could tell that they didn't feel the same without Jay.

Terry and Jessica were talking with Callum, Brendon, Anna, Liza, Simon and Lia. They were also joking around, having fun, enjoying themselves.

Adrianna sat in the grass with a couple of her friends. David was good friends with them too, but he didn't like these heart felt goodbyes. He didn't see a point in it, he would be back.

"Alright." He heard Terry finally say. "Are we ready to go?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." Aaron said, uninthusiastically.

"I call shotgun." Adrianna said loudly, as David opened the front passenger door.

"Fuck." David said.

"Know your place, trash." Adrianna said triumphantly as she stuck her toung out at David.

"You're acting surprisingly cocky considering I'm able to kick you seat the whole way to Dublin." David said.

"You wouldn't dare." Adrianna said.

"Watch me." David replied.

James walked up to Terry as he sat into the drivers seat.

"Don't do anything stupid, alright?" James said. "I don't want to lose more kids."

"James, how stupid do you think I am?" Terry said, pretending to be hurt. "I'm not completely retarded."

"Alright, well, good luck anyway." James said, awkwardly patting him on the shoulder.

"Thanks man." Terry replied.

Jessica was the last to climb in. As soon as she shut her door, Terry slotted the car into first and drove out the open gate. The kids outside behind them waved as he turned left onto an open road. Busses lined the left of it and parked cars lined the right.

Terry stopped the car in the middle of the road.

"Wanna see me do a burn out?" He asked.

"Didn't i hear James tell you not to be a retard a couple of minutes ago." Jessica asked.

"You're one to talk." Terry said. "You're a fourteen year old with gun."

"But I know how to use it properly." Jessica said.

"And I know how to burnout properly." Terry said.

"Alright, go for it." Jessica said. "It'd be pretty cool."

"Only pretty cool?" Terry asked.

"Yeah, only pretty cool." Jessica said sternly.

Terry grinned as he put the car in neutral. He revved the engine and slammed the car into first gear. The tyres screeched as the car rocketed forward. After six seconds the screeching stopped as the tyres caught grip on the tarmac.

" This thing fucking moves." Aaron said, shocked at the speed of the big car.

The journey was uneventful. They saw no kids and a surprisly low amount of grownups. The BMW ate up the miles with ease and within no time, they were already at the outskirts of Dublin.

Dublin was a much bigger city than Kilkenny, having over one million people in the county itself and over half of those million people in the city.

As they drove into the city, they noticed there seemed to more grownups around.

"Lovely." Jessica said, sarcastically, staring out the window at half a dozen grownups, tearing two small children apart.

"I think it might be safer to look for another group of kids and stay with them." Aaron said.

"It probably is," Terry said. "But I want go there to pick up some personnel stuff. Family photos and all that."

Aaron nodded, understandingly.

They drove down a suburben street, with rows of bungalows on each side. It would have looked nice, but the bungalows were covered with grit and dirt and bodies littered the road.

Terry took a left at the next roundabout, but was confused by what he saw. A road block had been made with cars. There was a gap in the middle, wide enough for a car, but it was guarded by three kids.

All three of those kids were under armed, carrying only home made spears. The kid in the middle, an araibic kid of about thirteen, motioned for them to stop the car. Terry stop the car, a few feet shy of the kids. The araibic kid stepped over to Terry's side of the car as Terry rolled down the window.

"Yes?" Terry asked.

"Sorry man," The kid said. "Your gonna have to turn around."

"Why?" Terry asked.

"We're trying to keep this part of Dublin free from destruction and grownups." The kid said.

"How come you picked this estate." Terry asked.

"Its not just this one." This kid said as he strechted his hand out into the distance. "We're guarding a few more estates after this. About six or seven more."

"So, all of Glenageary? " Terry said.

"Yeah, sure." The kid said. He didn't sound like he knew the place too well.

"And no ones allowed in there?" Terry asked.

"Yeah." The kid said.

"Can you make an exception?" Terry asked. "My grandmother's house is there and I want to stay there for a few days, pick up a few stuff and all that."

"Nope." the kid said. "No one's allowed in."

"But, nothings stopping us from going in there." Terry said. "You have homemade spears and I have a shotgun."

"If you wanna go in, that's fine." the kid said, as soon as he noticed Terry's shotgun. "But I'm gonna have to come with you, to make sure you don't fuck with anything."

"Fine," Terry said, only saying he could go because he didn't want to make a fuss. "But your gonna have to get in the boot."

"Fine." The kid said. Terry pressed a button in the car and the tailgate swung open. The kid climbed in.

"What's your name?" David asked, as Terry started to drive.

"Arif." Arif said. "Yours?"

"David." David said.

"Is that meth?" Arif asked, surprised,as he picked up an unsealed box and looked inside.

"No, the meth's in the other box." David said. "We dont know whats in the one your holding. We think it might be adderal or xanax, but we're not sure."

"It can't be adderal." Adrianna said. "Normally adderal is put in pills."

"How do you know that?" Terry asked.

"I may or may not have indulged once or twice back before the disease." Adrianna smirked.

"You'd get along well with Ben." Jessica said. "He's such a junkie. He could probably give you some adderal."

"I dont think he has adderal." Aaron said. "I've seen him at parties before the disease and he mostly stuck to weed and cocaine. I'm sure he'd be open to trying adderal, but I don't think he'd buy it. He probably wouldn't have been able to afford back in the day."

"Adderal wasn't to expensive back then." Adrianna said. "Definetly cheaper than cocain or heroin."

"The price really depends on what class of drug it is." Terry said. "Cocaine, an A class drug, is about fifty or sixty quid for a gram, while glue, not even in a class of drug, cost one-fifty for a three pack in Euro Giant."

"How would you use glue as a drug?" Jessica asked.

"You sniff it for a quick high." Terry said.

By this time, they had reached the house. It was a beautiful two storey red brick house at the end of a street of identical house.

Terry reversed onto the drive way and into the car port.

"I havent been on a trip that long in years." Aaron moaned as he struggled to climb out of the back seat.

Terry opened the boot to let Arif out and then started to take all the bags out of the boot with David.

"Holy shit, this is heavy." Terry groaned as he pulled Jessica's suitcase out of the boot. "Jessica, what the fuck did you put in this?"

"I snuck a few bottles of champagne out of the kitchen back at the castle." Jessica said.

"How many?" Terry asked.

"Six." Jessica said.

"That's a little much, isn't it?" Terry grinned as he opened the front door of the house. "Jessica, can you come with me to make sure there's no grownups around?"

"Yeah, no problem." Jessica said as she clicked the safety of her pistol. They both went in.

"Where are you guys from?" Arif asked as they waited outside.

"Kilkenny City." David said.

"You're all the way from kilkenny?" Arif said, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"We're dealing drugs." Aaron said, non chalantly. "Do you know any groups around here who'll take them?"

"There's a group who live in a docked ferry over in Dún Laoghaire Harbour that might trade them for food. And there's another group who live in Dundrum who might take them."

"It's all clear." Terry said as he stepped out the front door.

"This house is lovely." Adrianna said as they walked in to the hallway. A light bulb hung low in a crystal holding. The polished wood floor was mostly covered by an exotic rug. To their right was a glass door leading to the living room, which contained armchairs, a TV, a marble fireplace going across the entire room, a glossy brown upright piano, a cabinet full of crystal glasses and countless knick knacks, all of which were from exotic countries. To there left through a pair of white doors was the kitchen and dinning room, and up head were the brown wooden stairs, leading to the second floor.

"We have a small problem with he sleeping situation." Terry addressed to the group. "There's four bedrooms and five of us, unless Arif is staying, which will make matters worse."

"I won't stay the night." Arif said. "I trust you won't destroy anything, Considering it's your grandmother's house and all."

Arif didn't really trust, but Terry's shotgun hung menacingly from the side of his belt, so Arif went along with whatever he said.

"Most of the rooms have double beds," Terry said. "So if two of you want to share a bed, that makes everything easier."

David and Aaron looked at each other for a second.

"I guess we can share a bed." Aaron said, uninthusiasticly.

"Lit." Terry said.

They walked into the kitchen and Jessica dropped a green bag onto the counter. It contained all there food for the next few days. It was mostly canned food and water, but the kids who worked in the kitchen had given them a few loafs of fresh bread and some cold chicken left over from the day before.

"Are we eating lunch now?" David asked.

"Yeah." Terry nodded as he left the room to grab some champagne flutes.

David and Adrianna set up the food on the table while Aaron searched for plates.

"Are you gonna be having anything?" Adrianna asked Arif, as she laid down knifes and forks.

"Yeah." Arif said. He would never turn down free food.

Terry returned with six champagne flutes, as everyone else sat down. He popped the cork on one the chanpagne bottles.

"Is everyone having some?" he asked.

"No." David said. "I won't have any."

"Pussy boy." Adrianna teased.

"You know, Terry." Jessica said. "Since your driving, it wouldn't be very smart if you drank, would it?"

"Fuck it, I'll be fine" Terry said, pouring five glasses of champagne and passed them around.

"How come you came here to trade your drugs." Arif asked, after taking a sip of his champagne.

"There's more people in Dublin, we think. " Terry said.

"I don't think there is" Arif said. "We lost a lot of people in The Troubles."

"Didn't the troubles happen in Northern Ireland in the seventies and eighties?" Aaron asked.

"Yeah, but I'm not talking about that." Arif said. "The Troubles that happened here happened four weeks ago and lasted around three days. The disease was really starting to kick in and about half the grownups were infected already. There five groups involved in the whole thing: the grownups who were diseased and causing chaos, the grownups who were still fine, trying to stop the other grownups, or sickos as we call them, the kids who were trying to survive, more kids who just wanted to smash shit and a group of kids and adults who tried to escape on a Stena Line ferry. They somehow got the ferry moving but it broke down less than a kilometer away from the coast, so they anchored it there. A group kids still live on it and travel in every now and again on one of the life boats for food.

"The grownups who were not diseased were all either killed or got the disease. The kids who were smashing shit live in Dundrum shopping centre now and the group I'm with live in a few different places. There's around five different groups that are all, kinda, united and every week, their leaders meet up and discuss shit, what to do, what places are over run with grownups, where there's food left to scavenge and so on. Is anything like that in kilkenny?"

"Nope." Terry said. "There was big fire and every single group I know of hates the CBS group."

"Why?" Arif asked, mouth full of food. "Did they started the fire or something?"

"It wouldn't surprise me if they did." Terry said. "But everyone hates because, apart from a select few, there all dickheads."

"Is it any better in kilkenny?" Arif asked.

"There less grownups." Jeesica said. "Which is always nice."

"Not for me, it isn't." David said, patting his weapon. "Allways love going out for an ol' smashing a grownups head in."

"Is that a fucking beach chair?!" Arif laughed as he look over at David's weapon, the red and white striped fold out beach chair, with several nails sticking meanicingly out of the side and a black grip from a hurl that David had wrapped around it.

"Yeah, it's fucking amazing." David said. "Works almost as well as Terry's shotgun."

"I'm sure it does." Arif said doubtfully.

After lunch, they chatted for another half hour before getting in the car. They dropped Arif off at his guarding post and drove off to look for other groups of kids.

"You know, I'm from Dublin." Terry said, as he drove. The two and a half glasses of champagne he had at lunch seemed to be having no effect on him.

"Really?" Adrianna said, as she turned on the front heated seat. "How come you didn't tell us?"

"It didnt really matter." Terry said.

"How long did you live here?" David asked.

"I lived in Dublin until I was eleven, then we moved to kilkenny." Terry said. "We loved in a council flat in North Dublin, but my dad got a much better paying job in kilkenny, so we moved there."

They drove for about half an hour. The roads were wet from yesterday's rain and the clouds hung low and dark in the sky. There were more abondoned cars around here, which caused them to make several de tours. Eventually they made it to the harbor. Terry parked the car in the car park for the Dún Laoghaire boating club and they got out.

They walked onto the concrete boardwalk or wall or pier or something(I'm not really sure what to call it.) , that protected the harbor from the Irish sea.

"Huh." Jessica grunted, looking out into the dark blue sea. "Arif was right."

Indeed, like Arif had said, anchored almost a kilometer from shore was a massive Stena Line ferry, with the painted words, Stena Scandinavica barely visible on the bow, from where the stood.

"How do we get over there?" Aaron asked.

Terry shrugged. "Dunno."

They searched around the harbor for a few minutes, looking for any boats that looked usable. There were a lot of small yachts here, but they'd either sank or would require another boat to get to them, as the were to far from the jetty.

"That's creepy." Terry noted, looked down at a small yacht. The yachts hull was nothing more than a black shadow in the dark water and all that remained above water was the rusting mast.

"Hey, look at that." David said, pointing to a white and orange lifeboat, tied to the jetty, a few feet from the entrance to the harbor.

"What of it?" Aaron asked.

"It's says Stena Scandinavica, then motor launch two on the back of it." David said

" So?" Aaron questioned. he clearly wasnt getting it.

"It's a lifeboat from the ship, you fucking troglodyte." Adrianna said.

"Oh." Aaron said.

"So the people who live on the ship probably get in and out with that lifeboat." David said.

"So then why is it here?" Aaron asked.

"Because there probably out looking for food or whatever." David said.

"Should we wait for them to come back?" Jessica asked.

" I guess." Terry said. "It won't do us any harm."

He turned around to sit on a nearby bench but a group of kids were already approaching. There were four of them, two boys and two girls. Three of them carried heavy shopping bags in their hands while the last one kept gaurd, clutching a large sword.

Terry immidietly recognized the kid with the sword from his days living in Dublin.

"Hey, Brian." Terry nodded, as soon as they were in talking distance.

"Hey, Hey, Terry, long time no see." Brian grinned enthusiasticaly. "How's it been hangin'?"

"Not to bad." Terry replied. "Yourself?"

"It's been goin' great." Brian replied cheerfully. "What are you doin' all the way up from kilkenny?"

"Dealing drugs." Terry said casually.

Brian burst out laughing. "No fucking way?!"

Terry nodded. "Do you live on the ferry out there?"

"Sure do." Brian said as the tree other kids with him started loading there shopping bags into the lifeboat. "You wanna come over for a bit?"

"Yeah, that's what we're here for." Terry said. "Some guy called Arif told us about this place, you know him?"

Brians mood immidietly turned sour. "Yeah, I know that prick. Dont trust him Terry. He might seem nice at the start but he'll start spewing a bunch of bullshit about other camps to you."

Terry, Adrianna, Jessica, Aaron, David, Brian and the three other kids climbed into the lifeboat.

Brian suddenly burst out laughing.

" Is that a fucking beach chair?" He laughed, pointing at David's weapon.

52.

Liam walked down a path, towards the back of the castle grounds. It was a gloomy day back in kilkenny. It had been raining up until a few minutes ago and the path was covered in little puddles.

He crossed off the concrete path when he reached the back gates of the castle and onto a specialy built wooden one. As soon as he stepped onto it, his black Adidas runners lost grip and he slipped and fell onto his back.

Instead of getting up, he simply lay there, staring up at the grey sky and the high trees to his left and right. After a few seconds, he carefully got up and walked on.

The wooden path lead towards a modern art sculpture, built around a decade ago. It was made of black metal and shaped like two squares going through each other.

In Liams opinion it looked like shit, but in this world it was the least of his worries.

He followed the wooden path to the back of the sculpture. Here there were a few grave stones. Each one had the persons name, their date of birth and date of death. He recognised a few of the names on some of them.

Jerome Watson. 25/10/04 - 05/04/19.

Sasha Butler. 08/01/05 - 06/04/19

Jack Walsh. 15/08/04 - 09/04/19

Charlie (second name unknow). ? - 09/04/19.

Jay Malone. 30/09/04 - 09/04/19

Liam missed them all. He looked to the very end of the line of grave stones and saw the person he missed the most.

Fionn Hogan. 15/12/04 - 03/05/19

He had fond memories with Fionn. Most of them involved bunking of school to smoke. School was a waste of time, they'd always thought. Teachers went on about how it wasn't. Who would've thought they would be so wrong. Education wasn't worth shit nowadays. Liam hadn't used Algebra since leaving school and he doubted he'd ever be using it again.

Liam shoved his hand in his pocket, and pulled out a box of cigarettes and a lighter. He placed them carefully on top of the gravestone.

"Here you go, Fionn." Liam said quietly. "Your favorite."

Liam felt raindrops on his head as he turned to walk, wondering if the next gravestone there would be his.

53.

Aaron's life had been pretty basic, before the desease. Back then, on an average day, he would get up, go to school, come home, go to soccar training or hurling, come back home, eat dinner, do homework, masterbait and go to bed, and during the weekends he often hang out with Clyde, Richard and Jay.

But never, ever had he thought that society would collapse in the space of a few weeks. Never had he thought that he would be fighting for his life at the age of fourteen. Never had he thought he'd be trying to sell drugs in a post apocalyptic future to a group of kids living on a derelict 55,000 ton passenger ship. Life was certainly full of surprises.

The three other kids had left, so they were following just Brian now, as he led them through hallways, shops and resteraunts on this 55,000 ton bohemoth of a ship.

"Been living on this ship three weeks now." Brian said as they walked. "Safest place in the world."

"Why is most the writing in Swedish?" Terry asked, as they passed through a resteraunt with a view of the sea. There were menus up on the wall that listed all sorts of food that none of the kids could understand.

"The ship used to sail between Sweden and Germany." Brian said.

"So why is it here?" Jessica asked.

"Dunno." Brian shrugged. "Someone on the ship has a theory that while it was traveling between Sweden and Germany, both ports closed, because of the desease, and wouldn't let any ships in, and the closest open port was Dún Laoighaire. It sounds plausible enough, but I don't know."

Brian led them through a door and onto one of the rear decks of the ship. He led them up two flights of metal stairs and onto the top deck. The floor here was painted blue and there was an empty heli-pad in the middle of the deck. At the very front was the bridge, where the captain would've commanded the ship.

When they reached the bridge, Brian knocked on the main door.

"Wait here." Brian said and he entered before whoever was inside could answer.

"We have a few visitors." They heard Brian say.

"Really, from where?" A girls voice from inside the bridge asked.

"Kilkenny." Brian said.

"Wow." The girl said.

"Should I let them in?" Brian asked.

There was silence. The girl inside made some sort of dismissive grunt.

"Alright, I'll let them in." Brian said.

Brian leant out the open door and signalled for them to come in. Terry, Jessica, Adrianna, Aaron and David stepped in.

"Hi Terry." The girl said. "Haven't seen you in years."

"Hey Jane." Terry said. Terry had been in the same class as Jane, until he moved to Kilkenny. He didn't really know her to well, though.

"You've done well for yourself." Terry remarked as he looked around at all the equipment in the bridge.

Jane nodded. "I have. If you don't mind me asking, what are you doing here in Dublin."

"Were selling drugs." Terry said.

Jane giggled, but it sounded forced. "Funny, but really, what are you here for?"

"Selling drugs." Terry said again. "We found them in a school in kilkenny and we want to trade them for food and water."

"Oh." Jane said. "Well, no, sorry, I don't think I can trade with you for drugs."

"Do you know anyone who'll take them?" Terry asked.

"Nope." Jane said.

"Alright, well, let's go." Aaron said.

"Do you want me to get some people to bring you back to shore?" Jane asked.

"Uh, yeah, thanks." Terry said. "That'd be great."

"No can do." Brian said, looking out to Dún Laoghaire harbor. "Too many Grownups."

Indeed, in Dún Laoghaire harbor, was a big group of grownups, about fifty or sixty. They must have caught on to there scent followed them there.

"Could you not just leave us somewhere else instead of the harbor? " Aaron asked.

Brian shook his head. "Nope. I don't know the waters anywhere else. Dont wanna risk wrecking the boat."

"Well, I guess we're stuck here." Aaron said.

"Since you're not leaving for a while, do you want us to show you around?" Brian said. Jane shot him an angry glance. Brian shrugged in return.

"Alright." Terry said.

They stepped out of the bridge and were immediately greeted with a strong, cold breeze.

"Ugh." Aaron moaned, zipping up his jacket. "How do you live here? It's fucking freezing."

"I spend most of my time in the bridge," Jane said. "So I'm rarely outside to notice it."

"How do you get your food?" Jessica asked, twirling one of her pistols in her hand.

"What do you mean?" Jane asked.

"Like, do you just scavenge for food or do you fish or what?" Jessica asked.

"We mostly just scavenge." Jane said. "There's loads of food around. But when that runs out we plan to put a farm somewhere on the mainland."

"Couldn't you just put a farm on the ship?" Jessica asked. "Like, bring over dirt from the mainland and grow carrots or whatever."

"I thought of that." Jane said. "But it would be too tedious. Plus, this ship is old and were not taking care of it. We don't know how. The whole thing will probably rust like that." Jane snapped her fingers. "Or the anchor chains will rust and snap, and the ship will just beach itself on the shore, providing it doesn't get torn to shreds by the rocks around here. This is only short term accommodation. It's not gonna be here forever and neither are we."

"How many people live here?" Jessica asked as the walked down a set of metal stairs.

"I don't know." Jane shrugged. "Brian, do you know?"

"Theres probably fourty or fifty." Brian said. "Im not sure, though."

They walked through a set of double doors and ended up in a blue carpeted hallway, with first class cabins lining either side. The doors on the left side had been left open to let in natural light, as those cabins had windows.

"So what's it like in kilkenny?" Jane asked.

"It's fine." Aaron said. "Less grownups. But the castle we live in always freezing. Even though its fucking May."

"This is where we eat." Jane said when they reached a first class restaurant.

There were three kids in here, sitting around a table, talking. It seemed like Jane was trying not to make eye contact with them, pretending not to notice them, as they walked on.

"What happened to all the grownups on the ship?" Aaron asked.

"What?" Jane asked.

"We were talking to another guy a few hours ago and he said a load of you, kids and adults, tried to leave on the ship." Aaron said.

"Oh." Jane said. "There all dead. Most of them were killed off by the desease so we had to throw the dead bodies of the ship. Its not a very nice thing to do."

"What are you talkin' about?" Aaron said sarcastically. "Sounds lovely, like a walk in the park."

As they walked through another set of double doors, into a lounge, the ship made a loud groaning sound.

"Does the ship normally groan like that?" Adrianna asked.

"Yeah." Jane said, plainly. "It kinda sounds like it's screeming in pain."

54.

Brendon stared through the view finder of his old camera. It was a Patrika film camere his grandad had bought back in the 1980's. The camera had been built in communist East Germany, before the Berlin Wall fell and few years ago it was past down to him. He snapped an artsy shot of the castle. Brendon had wanted to be photographer, before the desease. That dream had been shattered into little pieces. However, it was still a good pastime to have, so he could forget about all the death and destruction.

"How long have we been in this castle?" Callum asked. Callum had come with him to get some fresh air.

"Four weeks." Brendon said. "Something like that."

"How long have we been friends?" Callum asked.

Brendon laughed. "Ever since you punched that kid who pulled down my pants in the playground."

"How long ago was that?" Callum smiled, thinking back to that moment.

"I think we were eight or nine." Brendon said.

"I remember after I punched him, the principal brought me into his office and started giving out shit to me." Callum said. "Then he called my parents but when my dad came and was told what happened, he just ruffled my hair and said 'That's my boy.'"

Brendon burst out laughing.

"He even bought me an ice cream afterwards. God, I miss him." Callum said, as he held back tears.

"How did you and Anna first start going out?" Brendon asked, hoping to change the subject. He didn't want Callum to start crying.

Callum sighed, thinking. "It's been so long, I can barely remember. I think a girl in our class set us up during summer last year. Do you remember Libby?"

"Yeah." Brendon said.

"I think it was her that set us up." Callum said. "That reminds me, what's the story with you and Maggie?"

"The story is there is no story, yet." Brendon said.

"Do you still like her?" Callum

"Of course I do." Brendon said.

"Then do something about it." Callum said.

"No." Brendon said, staring off into the distance. "I'm already good friends with her and I don't want to ruin that."

"I used to be good friends with Anna, before we started going out." Callum told him. "I was scared to ask her out, because I didn't want to ruin the friendship we had. Libby got bored of me not doing anything about it, so she set us up."

"Well, isn't life just nice for some." Brendon said, sarcastically.

"Listen, man." Callum said. "All you gotta do is make the first move. I'm pretty sure that's how Terry and Liza started going out, because he made the first move."

"I thought Liza made the first move?" Brendon said, quizzically.

"I don't know." Callum said. "Let's go ask her."

55.

David was bored out of his mind. He was sitting at a booth in a resteraunt on the ship, with Jane, Terry, Adrianna, Aaron and Jessica. Jane and Terry were talking about kids they'd known back in primary school and the others were arguing about whether it would be possible to teach a grownup to use a weapon effectively. David, however, was interested in what Brian had gone of to do.

Some of the kids who lived here had torn the seat backs and bottoms of some of the booths and arranged them in a five by five meter boxing ring. About fifteen kids surrounded the ring and Brian, himself, was currently in that ring, with boxing gloves on, sparring with another kid, who was slightly taller than him. Brian appeared to have the upper hand though, and was landing some great hits.

The match was over before David knew it and Brian and the other kid climbed out of the ring. David walked over to Brian.

"You were unreal in there." David grinned.

"Thanks man." Brian said. He pulled off his gloves and held them out to David. "You wanna have a go?"

"Fuck yeah." David said, enthusiastically grabbing the gloves and pulling them on. He leapt into the ring.

"Anyone want to take there chances against David?" Brian yelled at the crowd of kids.

"David?" Terry said from the other side of the room. He looked over to where David had been sitting and realize he wasn't there anymore. Terry looked over at the ring and saw David standing in it, looking thrilled. "Shit."

Terry leapt from seat and rushed over to the boxing ring. The others followed. Terry signalled for David to come over to him.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Terry asked quietly, so the other kids wouldn't hear.

"Chill out, Terry," David smiled. "It's only a bit of fun."

"I just don't want you hurt, ok?" Terry said.

"Don't worry, man, I can handle myself." David reassured.

"Alright, but promise me you'll call it quits if you start to fucked up." Terry said.

"No problem, man." David said.

"Alright, good luck." Terry said, stepping away from the ring, and back to his crew, and Jane. She seemed a bit nervous, or apprehensive. She was sweating a little, as well. Maybe she didn't like the fighting, Terry thought.

A boy stepped out of the crowd and over the barrier, into the ring. He was a lanky kid, with short blonde hair and a face covered in acne. He had, at least, half foot on David, but he didn't have a lot of meat on his arms, so David was pretty confident.

"Alright." An Asian kid with small glasses and straight black hair said to David and the other kid. "There's three rounds, each a minute long. The ring of the bell signals the start and end of each round. No blows before or after the bell. No blows under the waist. Y'all got that?"

David and the kid nodded.

"Alright." The asian kid said. "Three, two, one..."

The Asian kid rung the bell.

"Fuck him up, David!" Aaron shouted.

David and the kid circled the ring a couple of times, slowly closing in on each other, until the kid threw a clumsy right hook. David easily dodged, and threw two punches in quick succession, into the kids stomach, before quickly stepping back.

"For fucks sake, David." Aaron shouted, over the cheering of the crowd. "You could have finished him then."

David threw another punch. The kid made an attempt to dodge and it only grazed his chin. David threw another punch with his left arm that connected with the kids temple. He fell to the floor. As he tried to get up, the bell rung.

"Jesus Christ, that was fucking amazing." Brian said to David. "Did you do boxing before the desease?"

"Nope." David said. "But I went to a very shitty secondary school, for lower class kids. There were a lot of people looking for a fight there, so I learned how to punch in the countless fights I've been in."

Aaron stared on, amazed at David's skills.

"David's fucking awesome." Aaron said.

"Aww, does someone have a little crush on a certain sexy, strong, hunky man?" Adrianna teased.

"Yeah." Aaron said jokingly. "I'm honoured that I get to share a bed with him tonight."

Adrianna laughed.

"With the way your describing David, you'd almost think you have thing for him." Jessica teased.

"Nah," Adrianna said. "I wouldn't go for someone like him. He's too phsycotic. Plus, we've been friends for too long. I'd prefer someone who's a bit more relaxed. A bit calmer."

"Like Terry." Jessica said.

Adrianna shot Jessica a pained expression. Jessica nodded in return.

They watched David obliterate the lanky kid in the next round.

"Hey, wheres Jane?" Jessica asked, after the bell rung, looking around.

Aaron shrugged. "Don't know. Dont care. This fight is all I'm interested in."

"I think I saw here slip off down that hallway." Terry said, pointing at a hallway at the other side of the restaurant. "I'll go look for her."

Terry left the others, just as the bell rung. He walked across the derelict restaurant, to the other hallway. He felt weird walking in this ship. Something that had once brought a couple thousand people from destination to destination in comfort, now sat, forever docked, slightly out of shore, forgotten about by the rest of whatever was left of society, stuck here for the rest of its days, until it rusts away or is brought crashing into shore by rough weather.

The hallway Terry walked in seemed to be mostly unused. A thin lair of dust covered the floor and walls. He could barely hear the incoherent shouting of the kids from in here. It was nice and quiet. Most of the doors here seemed to be locked, apart from couple which were left open to let in light.

He walked on further. Now all he could hear was the distant sound of the sea crashing against the hull. And something else. He could here something else. It sound like heavy breathing from somewhere, up the hallway. Terry stopped and listened. He heard another sound, like someone sucking in air through there teeth. They sounded like they were in pain. Maybe they were being attacked by a grownup. He'd seen kids stay silent when being manhandled and bitten by grownups. Too scared to even scream. But you'd normally hear the grownup. They were always clumsy and loud. So what was it?

Terry walked on, his hand hovering over the shotgun attached to his belt. The heavy breathing and sharp inhales started to become less and less distant, until he was convinced he was outside the room it was coming from. He looked in through the open door. He had been expecting the worst but what he saw shocked him to the bone.

Jane sat on the bed, in the right side of the room. The left sleeve of her hoodie was rolled up to the elbow, and Terry had a clear view of Jane's left forearm. Cuts of all sizes littered it. Most had started to or had already scabbed over but two were fresh and oozing blood. Jane noticed Terry and dropped the bloody Stanley knife in her right hand, in surprise, and it fell onto the carpeted floor with a soft, dull, quiet thud. The room was silent. Jane, blood dripping down her arm, stared at Terry in shock and Terry stared back, in shock, for what felt like an eternity, but what couldve been no more than ten seconds.

"Ummm.." Jane stammered, quickly rolling down her sleeve.

"Oh my god." Terry said, quietly. He wasn't quiet sure how to react to this. He wanted to help Jane, but he wasn't sure how to because not only had he never dealt with this kind of situation before, but he didn't even know Jane that well.

Jane still stared at him, still shocked by the situation she'd been caught in.

"Jane," Terry said, taking a seat beside Jane on the bed, eventually deciding that a calm but direct approach was the best way to deal with this. "If you don't mind me asking, why do you... do this?"

The moment Terry asked this, he regretted it immediately. He was too direct about the whole situation. But Jane didn't seem too fazed by this.

"When I'm, uh, when I'm around a lot of people for too long." Jane said, stumbling over her words. She was shaking a little, as well. "I start to get very nervous. Then I... I get a sickly feeling in my stomach. I start to shake and sweat. I find it hard to even, uh, even speak proper sentences, or make proper thoughts. I start to feel light headed, like I'm gonna pass out. Then I just need to withdraw, get away and, ah, bring myself back to reality. And the easiest way to do that, is inflicting pain on myself."

" Fuckin' hell." Terry gasped, quietly. Terry stayed silent for a moment, thinking of what to do.

"I'm sorry if I weirded you out a bit." Jane said, weekly.

"Jesus Christ, Jane, no, you don't have to be sorry." Terry said. "It's always good to talk to someone about this. Get stuff off your chest, you know?"

Terry thought for another moment.

"Come with me." Terry said, standing up.

"Where are you going?" Jane asked, staring up at Terry.

"I'll bring you back to the bridge, away from everyone and then I'll go look for some bandages for your arm." Terry said.

Jane nodded and stood up. Terry led her through the hallway, around the resteraunt, where most of the kids were. They walked for another few minutes, until they reached the bridge. Terry didn't feel comfortable about leaving her there, alone, but he was considerably confident that she would do anything too drastic, like killing herself. Plus, her bloody Stanley knife was still in the room she dropped it in, so that reassured Terry enough that she'd be fine for a few minutes.

He went back down to the boxing ring, where Brian was. He was shouting amongst the crowd, as David beat the living hell out of another poor soul.

"Hey, Brian." Terry said, coming up behind Brian.

"Yo, Terry, what's goin' on?" Brian asked cheerfully, as he turned around to look at Terry.

"Do you have any meds? Like, bandages and all that?" Terry asked.

"Yeah, sure." Brian said. "Follow me."

Briand started to walk and Terry followed.

"What do you need 'em for?" Brian asked.

"There for Jane." Terry said.

"Really?" Brian said, surprised. "What happened to her."

"I don't think I can tell you that, I'm afraid." Terry said. "But you can ask her yourself if you want."

They'd reached a closet by now, built into the wall, in a hallway near the lifeboats. Brian opened it and pulled out a first aid kit.

"Where's Jane now?" Brian asked.

"In the bridge." Terry replied.

"Alright." Brian said. "I'll go up with you, to see how she is."

They left the closet and made there way to the bridge.

Brian opened the door of the bridge and they walked in. Jane sat in the captains chair, staring out at the sea. Terry opened the first aid kit.

"Roll up your sleeve." Terry told Jane, as he tore the packaging of a disinfectant wipe. Jane looked a little uncomfortable doing this, but she rolled it up, anyway.

"Holy shit." Brian said, staring at the cuts scattered over Jane's forearm.


	12. *Authors Note*

authors note*

Hi, to all two people who have read this far. I figured I'd make a little note to talk about a couple of things about the story.

Firstly, I wont be able to post new chapters as often, as I have the junior cert exams to do this year, and all sorts of other class based assessments and shit.

Secondly, while reading back over some of the older chapters, I've noticed a lot of grammer mistakes, spelling mistakes, or even entire words that I just forgot to put in, for some reason. The reason why my grammer and spelling is pretty terrible is because I've been going to an Irish speaking school for the last 11 years. I live in Ireland and Irish is our native language. Some primary and secondary schools try to keep the useless language alive by making students speak and write and learn in that language for every class (Apart from English class). So I've been learning maths, history, geography, science, music, etc In Irish and speaking it constantly eight hours a day, five days a week for almost 11 school years. It's clearly taken a toll on my English, so I figured I'd just mention it. (in chapter 32 or 33, I couldn't even spell "sure" right, which is pretty embarrassing, Considering I was 14 years old when I wrote that. Imagine being 14 and not being able to spell "Sure" It's kind of funny in a way, but it's also kind of pathetic.)

Thirdly, I'll be exploring some darker themes, like depression, suicide, self harm, etc, for the rest of the story, probably. I've treated the whole "Grownups becoming zombie-like things" pretty lightly over the course of the story so far, because I wasn't a good enough writer when i started writing this, but I think I've gotten better, so I'll try treat it less lightly. Most of these kids would be suffering mentally and I want to convey that more authentically, like I did with Jane, and will do with a lot of other characters (I have a lot planned)

And lastly, the reason why my chapters are awkwardly split into fives (1-5, 6-10, 11-15, etc.) is because when I first started writing this back mid 2018, it was my first time on the app and I didn't have a fucking clue how to use. So I did five chapters on 1 document and for some reason I though maybe it would let me separate each part of the document into different chapters. It didn't. (Or maybe you can, and I'm just retarded.) I was too lazy to try and fix the way the chapters are, and because the first 5 documents (chapters 1-25) have deleted themselves long ago, there's no going back and I'm pretty much stuck with the way the chapters are.

Anyway, that's about it, thanks for reading this and thank you to anyone who's read my story. PM me if you have any questions about the story or anything like that.

From~ The Author.


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